She started, and came back to the present. In the pain of the past she was momentarily strong. "I suppose you know best for yourself," she said quietly; "and I have no objection for Dick's sake."
Mr. Williams had been a little afraid of a scene, and her quiet and the tears in her eyes touched him. "I don't believe you will be sorry for it, Jane," he said kindly. "I have heard that you have had one sad experience, and I can promise you that you shall have nothing like that from me."
A slight shadow, almost a frown, passed over her face. "You are very kind," she said in a cold voice. "But as to the past, no one is to blame but me. I stand by the man I married when I was a young girl. I loved him then and always, and I hope to meet him again. He was too good for me."
"All right!" replied the merchant cheerfully, but with some surprise. He had not thought that the widow possessed so much spirit. "We need not disagree about him. We can enter into a partnership for the rest of our lives. As to the other world, I'll ask for no mortgages on that. If you run away with Mr. Rowan when we get there, I won't run after you. May be somebody else will be claiming me. I'm satisfied, if you are. We are too old for sentiment."
So saying, he turned again to the Evening Post, and pursued his reading.
Too old for sentiment! She looked at him with eyes in which, for a moment, a high and shining wonder dilated. Why, if Richard had lived and prospered, and she had made him happy, she could have run to meet him with roses of joy in her cheeks, though she were half a century old. She could have been as watchful of his looks and tones, as quick to tune her own by them, as when she was a girl. Too old for sentiment! Well, it takes all sorts of people to make a world, she thought.
An hour of silence passed, the woman sewing, the man reading. At ten o'clock Mrs. Rowan rose to go to bed. Mr. Williams looked up. "Let's see, this is September first," he said. "Suppose we call in the parson about the tenth?"
She stopped—she and her breath.
"You know we need not bother about a bridal tour," he said. "And I think we may as well keep our own counsel. When it is all over, I'll introduce you to Mrs. Bond as a new sister-in-law. Don't be afraid: I will make her keep the peace. I am a justice, you know."
"Very well," said Mrs. Rowan. "Do as you like."