'Old? Oh, yes, you're very old. I wish I was as young, and half as pretty.'
'Oh, miss.' I stammered--through being that eager to say something I knew I didn't ought to--'if you'll excuse me for making so free, you're the most beautiful lady I ever saw.'
She laughed right out.
'Then you've never seen a looking-glass, because I assure you I was never half so pretty as you are at this minute. It seems odd for two women to be paying each other compliments, but yours is the kind of face which is seen only once in a generation. Tell me--how did you meet your husband?'
I told her the whole story. She listened, as it seemed to me, with wonder.
'How strange! And you married him, knowing nothing about him except what he told you.'
'He told me nothing.'
'But you must have known something of his previous history--what he'd been, and what he'd done.'
'I never thought to ask.'
'But he's told you since.'