“Oh, no, I sha’n’t! I’ll stay a rich widow, but it was distressed to stay a poor one. Did I tell you that Stacey is married? I was so delighted. He’s got a good wife, too; real sober and settled down. So I didn’t do so much harm after all your fuming and fussing. I like to make people comfortable when I can. And now we’re happy all around just like a book. I wonder what will become of you before I get back. I expect that Dine will be married. John is as tickled as he can be! It’s lovely to be an old man’s darling; I am to have my own way about every thing. I’m glad that he wasn’t a widower; I hate widowers!”
A tap at the door summoned Sue. “Good-by, dear old room!” she cried gayly. “You’ve seen the last of me. I hope that you will get every thing you are waiting for, Tessa.”
As once before on Sue’s wedding day, Tessa was taken home in Dr. Towne’s carriage.
“I wonder if he knows,” she said.
“If he do it can not trouble him. He understood her.”
“I am beginning to understand what the hurt of love is.”
“What is it?”
“Don’t you know?”
“I think that you are teaching me.”
“It is a lesson that we have learned together. I used to wonder why God ever let us hurt each other; perhaps that is the reason, that we may learn together what love is!”