"I want to, indeed. I would have done so before, but I am superstitious. Who is it that feeds me so mysteriously?"
"Has he been coming of late?" asked Mrs. Tilghman.
"No, not since you were married, Vesta."
"Then I think it will come no more," Milburn said. "You have waited longer than I did."
His eyes sought his wife's. He added:
"Will I ever be more than your husband?"
"Yes," said Grandmother Tilghman, with a special effort, "when you wear a hat a young wife is not ashamed of."
All felt a cold thrill at these words from the blind woman. Milburn said, gravely,
"How can you know about hats, when you cannot see them?"
"Oh," said Grandmother, herself a little frightened, "that hat I think I can smell."