r.

CHAPTER V.

"Is there no constancy in earthly things?
No happiness in us, but what must alter?"

Zoe drove over to the village in good season to meet the last train for
that day, coming from the direction in which Edward had gone, ardently
hoping he might be on board.

The carriage was brought to a stand-still near the depot; and she
eagerly watched the arrival of the train, and scanned the little crowd
of passengers who alighted from it.

But Edward was not among them, and now it was quite certain that she
could not see him before another day.

Just as she reached that conclusion, a telegram was handed her:--

"Can't be home before to-morrow or next day. Will return as soon as
possible. E. TRAVILLA."

To the girl-wife the message seemed but cold and formal. "So different
from the way he talks to me when he is not vexed or displeased, as he
hardly ever is," she whispered to herself with starting tears during the
solitary drive back to Ion. "I know it's silly--telegrams can't be
loving and kind: it wouldn't do, of course--but I can't help feeling as
if he is angry with me, because there's not a bit of love in what he
says. And, oh, dear! to think he may be away two nights, and I'm longing
so to tell him how sorry I am for being so cross this morning, and
before that, too, and to have him take me in his arms and kiss me, and
say all is right between us, that I don't know how to wait a single
minute!"

She reached home in a sad and tearful mood. Ella, however, proved so
entertaining and mirth-provoking a companion, that the evening passed
quickly, and by no means unpleasantly.

But when the two had retired to their respective apartments, Zoe felt
very lonely, and said to herself that she would rather have Edward
there, even silent and displeased, as he had been for several days past,
than be without him.

Her last thought before falling asleep, and her first on awaking next
morning, were of him.

"Oh, dear!" she sighed half aloud, as she opened her eyes, and glanced
round the room, "what shall I do if he doesn't come to-day? I'll have to
stand it, of course; but what does a woman do who has no husband?" And
for the first time she began to feel some sympathy for Miss Deane, as a
lonely maiden lady.

She thought a good deal about her unwelcome guest while attending to the
duties of the toilet, and determined to treat her with all possible
kindness during the remainder of her enforced stay at Ion