The gate opened, and some one came up the walk.  They looked, and it was
Lulu.

* * * * *

“Well, if it ain’t Miss Lulu Bett!” Dwight cried involuntarily, and Ina cried out something.

“How did you know?” Lulu asked.

“Know!  Know what?”

“That it ain’t Lulu Deacon.  Hello, mamma.”

She passed the others, and kissed her mother.

“Say,” said Mrs. Bett placidly.  “And I just ate up the last spoonful o’ cream.”

“Ain’t Lulu Deacon!” Ina’s voice rose and swelled richly.  “What you talking?”

“Didn’t he write to you?” Lulu asked.

“Not a word.”  Dwight answered this.  “All we’ve had we had from you—­the last from Savannah, Georgia.”

“Savannah, Georgia,” said Lulu, and laughed.

They could see that she was dressed well, in dark red cloth, with a little tilting hat and a drooping veil.  She did not seem in any wise upset, nor, save for that nervous laughter, did she show her excitement.

“Well, but he’s here with you, isn’t he?” Dwight demanded.  “Isn’t he here?  Where is he?”

“Must be ’most to Oregon by this time,” Lulu said.

“Oregon!”

“You see,” said Lulu, “he had another wife.”

“Why, he had not!” exclaimed Dwight absurdly.

“Yes.  He hasn’t seen her for fifteen years and he thinks she’s dead.  But he isn’t sure.”

“Nonsense,” said Dwight.  “Why, of course she’s dead if he thinks so.”

“I had to be sure,” said Lulu.

At first dumb before this, Ina now cried out:  “Monona!  Go upstairs to bed at once.”

“It’s only quarter to,” said Monona, with assurance.

“Do as mamma tells you.”

“But—­”

“Monona!”

She went, kissing them all good-night and taking her time about it.  Everything was suspended while she kissed them and departed, walking slowly backward.

“Married?” said Mrs. Bett with tardy apprehension.  “Lulie, was your husband married?”

“Yes,” Lulu said, “my husband was married, mother.”

“Mercy,” said Ina.  “Think of anything like that in our family.”

“Well, go on—­go on!” Dwight cried.  “Tell us about it.”

Lulu spoke in a monotone, with her old manner of hesitation: 

“We were going to Oregon.  First down to New Orleans and then out to California and up the coast.”  On this she paused and sighed.  “Well, then at Savannah, Georgia, he said he thought I better know, first.  So he told me.”

“Yes—­well, what did he say?” Dwight demanded irritably.

“Cora Waters,” said Lulu.  “Cora Waters.  She married him down in San Diego, eighteen years ago.  She went to South America with him.”

“Well, he never let us know of it, if she did,” said Dwight.

“No.  She married him just before he went.  Then in South America, after two years, she ran away again.  That’s all he knows.”