Frank proposed to escort her, but she knew he could not well be spared from business at that season; and, with a bravery and self-reliance not common to her years and her sex, she determined to go alone.
Shortly after my arrival at the house, she retired to her room with Kate, to make the final arrangements for the journey; and I seated myself with David, Cragin, and Frank, in the little back parlor, which the gray-haired old Quaker and his son-in-law had converted into a smoking room.
As Cragin was lighting his cigar, I said to him:
'Have you heard the news?'
'What news?'
'The dissolution of Russell, Rollins & Co.'
'No; there's nothing so good stirring. But you'll hear it some two years hence.'
'Read that;' and I handed him the paper which Hallet had signed.
'What is it, father?' asked Frank, his face alive with interest.
'Cragin will show it to you, if it ever gets through his hair. I reckon he's learning to read.'