een wrung! But poor,
dear Mr. Swink always said bygones ought to be bygones, and now
they're married I suppose it's a bygone and I ought not to let my
heart be wrung; but it is, and I've been thinking about poor, dear
Mr. Swink all day." She took her seat and, wiping her eyes and nose,
began to cry again. "Oh, my dear, you don't know the anguish of a
mother's heart!"

"Would you like a fresh handkerchief?" I asked. The one in Mrs.
Swink's hand was too wet for further use. I started toward my
bedroom door, but she shook her head.

"I've got two or three, I think. I'm so easily affected when my
heart is wrung that I have to keep a good many on hand. But I had to
come and thank you. It would have been so dreadful for them to have
gone off alone. It makes it very different to have had you and Mr.
Thorne along. Yes, indeed--a mother's heart--"

What was she up to? Fearing that my face would indicate too clearly
that I was not deceived by her change of tactics, I shielded it from
the fire by the screen, close to the chair in which I sat, and made
effort to wait politely, if not with inward patience, for what I
would discover if I only gave her time. Something had happened I did
not understand. I had forgotten the letter Selwyn had sent her.

"They went away an hour ago on their wedding-trip." A fresh
handkerchief was drawn from the heaving bosom for the fresh tears
which again flowed. "My poor head is all in a whirl. So many things
had to be done, though Madeleine wouldn't take but one trunk and no
maid, though I told her she could have Freda, and there are so many
things that have got to be attended to before they get back that I
don't know where to begin, and I had to come down here right away and
thank you the first thing. And of course she will have to have a
trousseau, for her poor, dear father wouldn't like it if she didn't
have one, and the best that could be bought. He was very particular,
her father was, and I know he would thank you, too, if he could. And
there will have to be a reception, and it's about that, and a few
other things, I felt I must talk to you this morning, being you are
responsible, in a way, for the marriage--"

"I am nothing of the sort. You are responsible for its being the
sort of marriage it was. I went with them because--"

"Yes, indeed, I understand! Tom says it was splendid in you and I
had to come and thank you. Everybody will take it so differently
when they