"This must be the liner," Mrs. Sanford declared upon the following morning, looking out at the pouring rain. "I doubt Bathalina will not come to-day."

The event proved her mistaken; for Mrs. Mixon walked over from Samoset, despite the storm, her bundles hanging about her until she looked like one of the seven wives of the man met upon the road to St. Ives. Flossy saw her coming up the walk which led to the kitchen-door, the water streaming from every fold and end of her garments and belongings.

"Behold a water-nymph!" she said. "She's so fond of washing, I suppose she feels as if she were in her native element."

"She looks a good deal like an angel dragged through a brush-fence into a world of bitterness and woe," commented Will.

"There are marriages of convenience," Patty said; "but Bathalina certainly made a marriage of inconvenience."

"Let's go and see her," proposed Flossy.

To the kitchen they all trooped. Mrs. Sanford was there before them, alternately scolding the returned prodigal, and pitying herself.

"The trials I've been through since you left," she said, "are beyond mortal belief. How you could have the heart to leave me in the lurch so, Bathalina, is more than I know. 'Light come, light go,' as the old saying is; and I doubt you've proved it by this time with that husband of yours."

"But it is too bad you've left him, Bathalina!" Flossy put in. "You've no idea how becoming a husband was to you. You ought never to go without one."

"Where is your other half?" Will asked. "You and he are only one between you, you know."

"In courtin'," answered Bathalina sententiously, rising to the height of the occasion,—"in courtin' there may be only one, but in marriage there's two."

"Hurrah!" he laughed. "You've learned something. That's worthy of Emerson. Allow me to add," he continued with mock solemnity, "that it is a truth as old as the universe, that one plus one is two."

"I'm glad you've come," said Flossy; "for you do make such good things to eat. The last girl we had, made bread so sour that I couldn't eat it without feeling as if angle-worms were crawling down my back. So you don't like being married, Bathalina?"

"It was all for my sinful pride," the servant answered lugubriously, "that I was left to be Peter Mixon's wife. And, if ever you come to be that, you'll repent with your harps hanged on the willows, as the tune says."

"For my part," said Patty, "I think Mr. Mixon will be a widower, if you don't get off those wet clothes soon."

"I doubt he will," assented Mrs. Sanford. "Why she came over in them is more than I can see."

"There, mother," Will said, "I fear your head has been turned by the Irish girls you've sent away."

"It's a mercy I'm spared to come back at all," Mrs. Mixon said. "We all have more mercies than we deserve."

"I'm not so sure of that," her mistress retorted. "Speak for yourself. I don't know as I have any more than I'm entitled to."

It was not in accordance with Bathalina's principles to exhibit any satisfaction at being once more in her old home; but, as she indulged in the most sad of her minors, it was inferred that she was well pleased. She continually bolted into the sitting-room to ask some question, apparently for the sake of feasting her eyes upon the mistress of the house.

"What do you put in squash-pies for seasoning?" she inquired, interrupting an earnest conversation between Mrs. Sanford and Mrs. Brown; the latter having, in these stormy autumn days, just got to her spring calls.

"Why, Bathalina, you know as well as I!" was the answer.

"Well, supposin' I do. Can't I have the satisfaction of askin' when I've been living in tumbledown Irishy places over to Samoset?"

"The girl must have been wandering in her mind when she went off to be married," remarked grandmother Sanford, smiling serenely.

"She was wandering in her body, at least," replied Patty.

"Yes, to be sure," said Mrs. Brown. "And, now I think of it, I don't know how I shall get home. My girl's gone too. She says she gave me a week's warning, but I'm sure I haven't begun to get ready for her to go yet. I must try to get things picked up so we can wash to-morrow or next day, and it rains worse than ever."

The caller had ridden over with Dr. Sanford, whom she had hailed as he passed her door.

quoted Flossy under her breath to Patty—

retorted her cousin. "They won't get at it before that time."

"I shall be ready after dinner," Mrs. Brown continued. "I guess Selina can pick up a pie or something for Joe.—Did I tell you, Mrs. Sanford, that we've heard from my cousin over to Samoset? He ain't really my cousin, only for marrying Eliza. But I feel for Eliza, I'm sure. He's run off with another woman, and Eliza's left to bring up her three boys. It's a mercy they ain't girls."

"I declare it's awful!" her hostess said. "Who was the woman?"

"She was the daughter of that Smithers woman that—you know."

The hostess gave an emphatic nod of the head, as if to indicate that she was aware of some mysterious wickedness connected with the female in question.

"But where did she come from?" she asked. "I thought she went off when Mr. Mullen died."

"Yes, she did," Mrs. Brown assented. "But such folks always turn up again. And the strangest thing about it is,"—and here her voice sank to a confidential whisper,—"that they say Mr. Putnam"—

The entrance of Patty, who had been to make arrangements for the transfer of Mrs. Brown to her own home, put an abrupt end to the conversation. But the hint conveyed had not dropped upon barren soil. Mrs. Brown knew merely that Mrs. Smithers, in her first surprise and dismay at the flight of her daughter, had driven over to Montfield for Mr. Putnam. But before she slept that night, the doctor's wife had conveyed to Patty an impression that the most dreadful stories were told of the relations between the lawyer and this castaway. Patty treated the scandal with contempt; yet she could not but remember that Flossy had met her lover on the road to Samoset, and that Will had heard his name at the gates of Mullen House.

"Will will take you home when he carries Floss to rehearsal," Patty said as she entered. "We are going to Mrs. Shankland's."