So he was her brother, not her husband, then! Well, he was a very nice fellow, either way, and nobody could be kinder or more sympathetic than he’d been to me so far.
We fell into conversation, which soon by degrees grew quite intimate.
“How far West are you going?” the man she called Jack asked after a little time, tentatively.
And I answered, all unsuspiciously:
“To a place called Palmyra.”
“Why, we live not far from Palmyra,” the sister replied, with a smile. “We’re going that way now. Our station’s Adolphus Town, the very next village.”
I hadn’t yet learned to join the wisdom of the serpent to the innocence of the dove, I’m afraid. Remember, though in some ways I was a woman full grown, in others I was little more than a four-year-old baby.
“Do you know a Dr. Ivor there?” I asked eagerly, leaning forward.
“Oh, yes, quite well,” the lady answered, arranging my footstool more comfortably as she spoke. “He’s got a farm out there now, and hardly practises at all. How queer it is! One always finds one knows people in common. Is Dr. Ivor a friend of yours?”
I recoiled at the stray question almost as if I’d been shot.