"No!" The severity of the features was modified by a grim smile. "No!" and the little, high knob of a head was shaken expressively.
"What then?" Ducklow inquired.
"Reuben has come home!" The words were spoken triumphantly, and the keen gray eyes of the elderly maiden twinkled.
"Come home! home!" echoed both Ducklows at once, in great astonishment.
Miss Beswick assured them of the fact.
"My! how you talk!" exclaimed Mrs. Ducklow. "I never dreamed of such a——When did he come?"
"About an hour 'n' a half ago. I happened to be in to Sophrony's. I had jest gone over to set a little while with her and keep her company,—as I've often done, she seemed so lonely, livin' there with her two children alone in the house, her husband away so. Her friends ha'n't been none too attentive to her in his absence, she thinks,—and so I think."
"I—I hope you don't mean that as a hint to us, Miss Beswick," said Mrs. Ducklow.
"You can take it as such, or not, jest as you please! I leave it to your own consciences. You know best whether you have done your duty to Sophrony and her family, whilst her husband has been off to the war; and I sha'n't set myself up for a judge. You never had any boys of your own, and so you adopted Reuben, jest as you have lately adopted Thaddeus; and I s'pose you think you've done well by him, jest as you think you will do by Thaddeus, if he's a good boy, and stays with you till he's twenty-one."
"I hope no one thinks or says the contrary, Miss Beswick!" said Mr. Ducklow, gravely, with flushed face.