'There's time enough to think of that,' said her husband, with a laugh.
Yet there was an uneasy expression in his face as he said it, which showed that the answer to the question was not a satisfactory one.
'Oh, Augustus! you don't know how long there may be,' said his poor wife sorrowfully.
'Well,' said he, 'if life's so short, we must get all the play we can out of it.'
'But what of the other life, Augustus—the long life that's coming?'
'Oh, that may take care of itself!' said her husband scornfully, as he lighted his pipe at the stove; and, wishing his wife a pleasant journey, he went down the steps of the caravan and closed the door.
The poor wife turned over on her pillow and wept. She had made a very great effort in speaking to her husband, and it had been of no avail. She was so spent and exhausted that, had it not been for Mother Manikin's beef-tea, which Rosalie gave her as soon as she came in, she must have fainted from very weariness.
A few minutes afterwards the waggons rumbled past, the theatre party set off on their journey, and Rosalie and her mother were left alone.