aid: "I may not get a good chance to
see Tilly alone, and in that case we'd better not keep her in suspense.
Perhaps, after all, you could tell her even better than I."

Martha Jane nodded. "Poor Joel!" she murmured. "I see. You haven't the
heart to tell her. Well, I will do it for you."

The elder Whaleys sat on the veranda. Tilly was not in sight. "I'll stay
here in the buggy. You go in," Joel said. "They will let you talk to her
alone. They always do."

Martha Jane got down to the ground between the parted wheels of the
buggy and went into the yard.

"Where is Tilly, Mrs. Whaley?" she asked.

"Up in her room," Mrs. Whaley said. "Will you go up, or wait down here?"

"I'll run up, I guess," the visitor answered, with assumed lightness.
"Joel, wait for me. I'll be down soon."

"Won't you come in, Joel?" Mrs. Whaley asked.

"No, I thank you, Mrs. Whaley," he said. "I'll watch my horse out here."

He remained seated in the buggy, slightly bending forward. A horse-fly
was teasing the shuddering back of his horse, and he deftly flicked at
it with his whip till he had knocked it away. A man in a field across
the road was gathering yellow pumpkins and loading them into a cart.
Joel himself had several acres of pumpkins ready for harvesting, and
ordinarily he would have been interested in the quantity and quality of
this farmer's product, but there were graver things on his mind now.
Surely Martha Jane was staying a long time up-stairs. Had she put it
delicately enough? Had she omitted to mention the fact of Trott's taking
the child away with him? Joel had intended emphasizing that, for it was
a thing any wife would be proud to hear of the man she had married. The
time dragged even more slowly now. Old Whaley left his seat, walked
around to the well, drew up a bucket of water, and drank from the
bucket itself, tilting it forward with both his hands. Then Mrs. Whaley
went into the house. Presently Martha Jane came down the stairs and out
into the yard.

"Good-by, Mrs. Whaley," she called out. "I must be going now."

"Good-by, Martha Jane!" from within the house. "Come again when you find
the time."

"I will, thank you, Mrs. Whaley. You must come out to see mother. She
never gets into town, and you mustn't count visits with her."

There was a response to this which Joel did not hear, for he was
studying his sister's face as he stood ready to help her into the buggy.

"Well?" he said, as they started to drive on.