She heard a great deal that afternoon, for the ladies at the end of the hall did not speak very low, and when at last she was released from her bandages and had made her afternoon toilet, she hastened round to Miss Bigelow’s to report what she had heard.  Tired with her vigils of the previous night, Ethie was lying down, but she bade Mrs. Pry come in, and then kept very quiet while the good woman proceeded to ask if she had heard the news.  Ethie had not, but her heart stood still while her visitor, speaking in a whisper, asked if she was sure Governor Markham could not hear.  That the news concerned herself Ethelyn was sure, and she was glad that her face was in a measure concealed from view as she listened to the story.

Governor Markham’s wife was not dead, as they had supposed.  She was a shameless creature, who eight or ten years before eloped with a man a great deal younger than herself.  She was very beautiful, people said, and very fascinating, and the governor worshiped the ground she trod upon.  He took her going off very hard at first, and for years scarcely held up his head.  But lately he had seemed different, and had been more favorable to a divorce, as advised by his friends.  This, however, was after he met Miss Sallie Morton, whose father was a millionaire in Chicago, and whose pretty face had captivated the grave governor.  To get the divorce was a very easy matter there in the West, and the governor was now free to marry again.  As Miss Morton preferred Davenport to any other place in Iowa, he had built him a magnificent house upon a bluff, finishing it elegantly, and taking untold pains with the suite of rooms intended for his bride.  As Miss Sallie objected to marrying him while he was so much of an invalid, he had come to Clifton, hoping to reestablish his health so as to bring home his wife in the autumn, for which event great preparations were making in the family of Miss Sallie.

This was the story as told by Mrs. Pry, and considering that it had only come to her through eight or ten different persons, she repeated the substance of it pretty accurately, and then stopped for Ethie’s comment.  But Ethie had nothing to say, and when, surprised at her silence, Mrs. Pry asked if she believed it at all, there was still no reply, for Ethelyn had fainted.  The reaction was too great from the bright anticipations of the hour before, to the crushing blow which had fallen so suddenly upon her hopes.  That a patient at Clifton should faint was not an uncommon thing.  Mrs. Pry had often felt like it herself when just out of a pack, or a hot sulphur bath, and so Ethie’s faint excited no suspicion in her mind.  She was fearful, though, that Miss Bigelow had not heard all the story, but Ethie assured her that she had, and then added that if left to herself she might possibly sleep, as that was what she needed.  So Mrs. Pry departed, and Ethie was alone with the terrible calamity which had come upon her.  She had been at the Water Cure long enough to know that