“This one,” Charlotte answered, “we call Hope.”
She seated herself and began trotting the child to a slow measure. There were still a few questions which she wished to ask, but the other’s simple acceptance of all she said inspired her with cool deliberation. There was plenty of time, and she wished to make no mistake. She must be sure of her own safety, and after that she must do anything she could for the comfort of the other woman. It would probably be very little.
“How did you get here?” she inquired, finally. “You must have asked somebody where Mr. Blake lived.”
“No, I didn’t have to ask. He’d written me he was boarding with a woman that lived on his old place,” Nettie said, “and I knew where that was because he’d often told me all about where he grew up and just the road he used to take from the station to the house, and I remembered every word of it. I didn’t like to go to him at his store for fear there would be loafers around, so I came right to his house. I thought I wouldn’t mind telling the woman that I was his wife, if she asked me any questions while I waited for him.”
“You were very wise,” Charlotte said, dryly.
Nettie settled back in her chair, rocking her little girl, who had grown restless and impatient, and as she rocked she began to pour out her heart. “You must think queer of me to sit down here with you like this and not to be in a rush to go,” she began, “but I feel like I’ve got to sit still and—and kind of get my breath before I can start out. I’ve been so afraid of it that it doesn’t seem like I ought to be surprised, but I tell you it pretty near kills me now I know it for sure.” She paused and stroked a stray lock of hair away from her child’s eyes. “My baby’s like him, too,” she said, irrelevantly. “My baby’s just as like him as yours is.”
Charlotte glanced again at the clock. “How do your friends treat you?” she asked, abruptly. “Do they believe you were really married or not?”
A bright flush sprang over Nettie’s face. “They believed it at first, of course, just the way I did,” she answered, quickly, “but lately they’ve been suspecting something. It was what they said made me get uneasy. I don’t distrust folks right quick myself.”
“And none of them tried to make inquiries for you?”—Charlotte put the question seriously, all her nerves tight strung.
“Oh no,” Nettie said. “I don’t have any family or any friends close enough to me to take trouble like that.”