hings to each other
as women do, big fools as they be!"

Mrs. Saunders gave Miss Northwick a wink of pity for Mrs. Newton and
expressed that she was hardly accountable for what she was saying.

"He used to complain of me for lettin' Arty get out into the stable
among the horses; but I guess he won't be troubled that way _much_
more," said the mother; and then something in Miss Northwick's face
seemed to stay her in her wild talk; and she asked, "Want I should call
him for you?"

"No, no," said Adeline, "I'll go right through to him, myself." She knew
the way from the coachman's dwelling into the stable, and she found
Elbridge oiling one of the harnesses, with a sort of dogged attention to
the work, which he hardly turned from to look at her. "Elbridge," she
asked, "did you drive father to the depot yesterday morning?"

"Yes, ma'am, I did."

"When did he say he would be back?"

"Well, he said he couldn't say, exactly. But I understood in a day or
two."

"Did he expect to be anywhere but Ponkwasset?"

"No, ma'am, I didn't hear him say as he did."

"Then it's a mistake; and of course I knew it was a mistake. There's
more than one Northwick in the world, I presume." She laughed a little
hysterically; she had a newspaper in her hand, and it shook with the
nervous tremor that passed over her.

"Why, what is it, Miss Northwick?" said Elbridge with a perception of
the trouble in her voice through the trouble in his own heart. He
stopped pulling the greasy sponge over the trace in his hand, and turned
towards her.

"Oh, nothing. There's been an accident on the Union and Dominion
Railroad; and of course it's a mistake."

She handed him the paper, folded to the column which she wished to show,
and he took it between two finger-tips, so as to soil it as little as
possible, and stood reading it. She went on saying, "He wouldn't be on
the train if he was at Ponkwasset; I got the paper when I first came
down stairs, but I didn't happen to read the account till just now; and
then I thought I'd run out and see what father said to you about where
he was going. He told us he was going to the Mills, too, and--" Her
voice growing more and more wistful, died away in the fascination of
watching the fascination of Elbridge as he first took in the half-column
of scare-heads, and then followed down to the meagre details of the
dispatch eked out with double-leading to cover space.

It appeared that the Northern express had reache