He laughs sarcastically.
"A widow indeed, and desolate, eh? No! I believe she has a husband somewhere about, but she keeps him well out of sight—away in the colonies. He is there now, I fancy."
"And why is not she with him?" cry I, indignantly; but the moment that the words are out of my mouth, I hang my head. Might not she ask the same question with regard to me?
"She did not like the sea, perhaps," answers Frank, demurely.
CHAPTER XXIV.
A day—two days pass.
"More callers," say I, hearing the sound of wheels, and running to the window; "I thought we must have exhausted the neighborhood yesterday and the day before!" I add, sighing.
"Whoever they are," says Barbara, anxiously, lifting her head from the work over which it is bent, "mind you do not ask after their relations! Think of the man whose wife you inquired after, and found that she had run away with his groom not a month before!"