(the custom of his daily visits
had never been broken) she could hardly wait until he tied his
horse--poor Bess had long since given out--to tell him the joyful news.

He listened gravely, his face lighting up at her happiness. He was glad
for Jane and said so frankly, but the situation did not please him. He
at heart really dreaded the effect of Lucy's companionship on the woman
he loved. Although it had been years since he had seen her, he had
followed her career, especially since her marriage, with the greatest
interest and with the closest attention. He had never forgotten, nor
had he forgiven her long silence of two years after her marriage,
during which time she had never written Jane a line, nor had he ever
ceased to remember Jane's unhappiness over it. Jane had explained it
all to him on the ground that Lucy was offended because she had opposed
the marriage, but the doctor knew differently. Nor had he ceased to
remember the other letters which followed, and how true a story they
told of Lucy's daily life and ambitions. He could almost recall the
wording of one of them. "My husband is too ill," it had said, "to go
south with me, and so I will run down to Rome for a month or so, for I
really need the change." And a later one, written since his death, in
which she wrote of her winter in Paris and at Monte Carlo, and "how
good my mother-in-law is to take care of Ellen." This last letter to
her sister, just received--the one he then held in his hand, and which
gave Jane such joy, and which he was then reading as carefully as if it
had been a prescription--was to his analytical mind like all the rest
of its predecessors. One sentence sent a slight curl to his lips. "I
cannot stay away any longer from my precious sister," it said, "and am
coming back to the home I adore. I have no one to love me, now that my
dear husband is dead, but you and my darling Ellen."

The news of Lucy's expected return spread rapidly. Old Martha in her
joy was the mouthpiece. She gave the details out at church the Sunday
morning following the arrival of Lucy's letter. She was almost too ill
to venture out, but she made the effort, stopping the worshippers as
they came down the board walk; telling each one of the good news, the
tears streaming down her face. To the children and the younger
generation the announcement made but little difference; some of them
had never heard that Miss Jane had a sister, and others only that she
lived abroad. T