“My poor boy!  We have heard of your trouble.  Have you found her yet?  Do you know where she is?”

There was a look of anguish and disappointment in Richard’s eyes as he replied: 

“I thought—­I hoped I might find her here.”

“And that is the reason of your waiting so long before coming?” Mrs. Dr. Van Buren put in sharply.

It was three weeks now since Ethie’s flight, and her husband had shown himself in no hurry to seek her, she reasoned; but Richard’s reply, “I was away a week before I knew it, and I have been very sick since then,” mollified her somewhat, though she sat back in her chair very stiff and very straight, eyeing him askance, and longing to pounce upon him and tell him what she thought.  First, however, she must have her dinner.  The tea would be spoiled if they waited longer; and when Aunt Barbara began to question Richard, she suggested that they wait till after dinner, when they would all be fresher and stronger.  So dinner was brought in, and Richard, as he took his seat at the nicely-laid table, where everything was served with so much care, did think of the difference between Ethie’s early surroundings and those to which he had introduced her when he took her to his mother’s house.  He was beginning to think of those things now; Ethie’s letter had opened his eyes somewhat, and Mrs. Dr. Van Buren would open them more before she let him go.  She was greatly refreshed with her dinner.  The tomatoes had not been burned; the fowls were roasted to a most delicate brown; the currant jelly was just the right consistency; the pickled peaches were delicious, and the tea could not have been better.  On the whole, Mrs. Van Buren was satisfied, and able to cope with a dozen men as crushed, and sore, and despondent as Richard seemed.  She had scanned him very closely, deciding that so far as dress was concerned, he had improved since she saw him last.  It is true, his collar was not all the style, and his necktie was too wide, and his coat sleeves too small, and his boots too rusty, and his vest too much soiled; but she made allowance for the circumstances, and his hasty journey, and so excused his tout ensemble.  She had resumed her seat by the fire, sitting where she could look the culprit directly in the face; while good Aunt Barbara occupied the middle position, and, with her fat, soft hands shaking terribly, tried to pick up the stitches Tabby had pulled out.  That personage, too, had had her chicken wing out in the woodshed, and, knowing nothing of Ethie’s grievances, had mounted into Richard’s lap, where she lay, slowly blinking and occasionally purring a little, as Richard now and then passed his hand over her soft fur.

“Now tell us:  Why did Ethelyn go away?—­that is, what reason did she give?”

It was Mrs. Dr. Van Buren who asked this question, her voice betokening that nothing which Richard could offer as an excuse would be received.  They must have Ethie’s reason or none.  Richard would far rather Mrs. Dr. Van Buren had been in Boston, or Paris, or Guinea, than there in Chicopee, staring so coolly at him; but as her being there was something he could not help, he accepted it as a part of the train of calamities closing so fast about him, and answered, respectfully: