with a
sigh.

"They all say that; yet no sooner is the wife laid in the grave than
they are anxious to find one younger and more fair."

"Women do the same," John ventured to urge in defence of his sex.

"Not so often as the men."

Then Mrs. Stevens began a harangue on the evils of second marriages and
wound up by declaring they were compacts of the devil. John Stevens
returned to the original question of his going to London.

"My friends all declare that it is my duty to go," he said.

"Your friends! who are your friends?"

"Drummond."

"An ignorant Scotchman."

Drummond was far from being ignorant, yet he stood not in favor with
Mrs. Stevens.

"Mr. Lawerence advises it."

"He is a canting hypocrite."

"Mr. Edward Cheeseman also thinks it advisable."

"Verily, he is a scheming man, who will swindle you out of the eight
hundred pounds when you have secured it."

"Hugh Price agrees with them."

"Does he?" asked Mrs. Stevens.

"He does."

"I don't believe it."

Hugh Price was, in her estimation, the perfection of manhood. He was of
the same church, a thorough royalist and a close friend of Sir William
Berkeley the deposed governor.

"Dorothe, I said he recommended it. Pray do not doubt it."

The matter was settled next day when Hugh Price himself said to Mrs.
Stevens that it was best for her husband to go. She secretly resolved
that during her husband's absence she would enjoy herself.

"John," she said, "if you are going away to London to enjoy yourself,
you must leave with me two or three hundred pounds."

John Stevens interrupted her with a sarcastic laugh.

"Dorothe, had I two or three hundred pounds, I would not go."

"Verily, how do you expect me to pass the dreary interval of your
absence, if I have no luxuries."

"Luxuries in our poor country are uncommon, and what few we have are
expensive. Think not of luxuries, but rather of necessities. Husband the
little money I shall be able to leave you and be prepared against
adversity. I may never return."

"Wherefore not?" cried Mrs. Stevens. "Do you contemplate an elopement?
You were seen holding converse with Susan Colgate."

Mrs. Stevens had, among other weaknesses, enough of the "green-eyed
monster" to make herself miserable. Susan Colgate was a pretty maiden at
Jamestown, whose charms John Stevens had praised in his wife's presence.
He smiled at her interruption and, after assuring her that he had no
intention of eloping, said: