"I don't know," said Mrs. Reverdy. "He's between seventy and eighty, somewhere."
"You won't have him long with you."
"O, I hope so!" said Mrs. Reverdy lightly, and with the unfailing laugh which went with everything; "I think grandpa is stronger than I am. I shouldn't wonder if he'd outlive me."
"Still, don't you think it is your duty to stay with him?"
Mrs. Reverdy laughed again. "I suppose we don't always do our duty," she said. "It's too cold here in the winter—after October or September—for me."
"Then it is not your duty to be here," said her sister Euphemia, somewhat distinctly. But Mrs. Flandin was bound to "free her mind" of what was upon it.
"I should think the Squire'd want Evan to hum," she went on.
"It would be very nice if Evan could be in two places at once," Mrs.
Reverdy owned conciliatingly.
"Where is Captain Knowlton now?" asked Mrs. Boddington.
"O, he is not a captain yet," said Mrs. Reverdy. "He is only a lieutenant. I don't know when he'll get any higher than that. He's a great way off—on the frontier—watching the Indians."