was constantly sending to ---- might have
testified for her; but there were painful reasons that made a meeting
with her mother and sister everything but desirable to the young wife.

She was changed since they parted. Her marriage had been contrary to
their wishes. If she did not go over to ---- in the chaise, she went
nowhere else; never did the most loving bride keep more closely at home.

Once Mrs. Grimshawe asked of her daughter's messenger, a rough
clodhopper, whom she had summoned to her bed-side in order to gratify
her curiosity and satisfy her doubts, the reason of Mrs. Cotton's long
silence--"Was she well?"

"Yes; but she had lost her rosy cheeks, and was not so blithe as when
she first came to the porched-house."

"Did her husband treat her ill?"

"Na, na; he petted her like a spoilt child; yet she never seemed happy,
or contented like."

"What made her unhappy then?"

"He could na just tell--women were queer creturs. Mayhap it was being
an old man's wife that fretted her, and that was but natural, seeing
that a pretty young thing like her might have got a husband nearer her
own age, which, for sartain, would ha' been more to her taste."

"Was she likely to have any family?"

"No signs o' the like. It had na pleased the Lord to multiply Noah's
seed upon the earth."

"Was he stingy?"

"Na, na; they had allers plenty to eat. He was a kind measter, an' good
pay. There was only their two selves, and Mrs. Cotton was dressed like a
lady, and had everything brave and new about her; but she looked mortal
pale and thin, an' he b'lieved that she was in the consumption."

The man went his way, and the old woman talked to Mary about her
daughter half the night. "She was always discontented with her lot," she
remarked, "when single. Change of circumstances seldom changed the
disposition. Perhaps it was Sophy's own fault that she was not happy."

Mary thought that her mother was right; but she felt so anxious about
her sister, that she determined to leave her mother, for a few days, to
the care of a kind neighbour, and walk over to F----, to ascertain how
matters really stood. But her mother became seriously ill, which
hindered her from putting this scheme into practice; and her uneasiness
on her account banished Sophy and her affairs out of her mind.

Other events soon took place that made a material alteration in their
circumstances. Mr. Rollins, their benefactor, died suddenly abroad, and,
leaving no w