"And so you ought," said Mrs. Wright with her gentle smile.
"Well, I didn't anyway," said Eliza wearily. "Did you stay at the island all summer?"
"Yes, and I'm still there. May I take off my coat, Eliza?"
The hostess started up with sudden recollection.
"I hope you'll excuse me, Mrs. Wright; if I ever had any manners they're gone."
Slipping off the coat, and relinquishing it into Eliza's hands, the visitor went on talking. "My husband gave up business a couple of years ago. Perhaps Mrs. Ballard has told you that he was never a successful business man." Mrs. Wright stifled a sigh under a bright smile. "Nobody can be well and idle long, you know, so the next thing he began to be ailing, the dear man, and he thought the sea would do him good; and, my dear Eliza, it has done him so much good that we have become islanders."
"You don't mean you're going to stay there?"
The visitor nodded the silvery aureole of her hair.
"That is what I mean. Mr. Wright went fishing all summer and he thinks he has found his niche in life. He has not been so well and happy in years."
"You'll stay all winter?" asked Eliza incredulously.