"I scarcely spoke to him," was John's reply. "I confess to a most
lamentable ignorance touching the Rev. Mr. Millbrook and his family. He
wore crape on his hat, I remember, but there was a lady with him to whom
he was quite attentive, and who, I think, was called by his name."
"Tall, with black eyes, like Lottie's?" Anna meekly asked, and John
replied: "Something after the Lottie order, though more like yourself."
"It's strange I never saw a notice of his expected return," was Anna's
next remark. "Perhaps it was in the last Missionary Herald. You have
not found it yet, have you, mother?"
The ringing of the supper bell prevented Mrs. Richards from answering.
How gracefully he did the honors, and how proud all were of him, as he
repeated little incidents of Parisian life, speaking of the emperor and
Eugenie as if they had been everyday sights to him. In figure and form
the fair empress reminded him of Anna, he said, except that Anna was the
prettier of the two--a compliment which Anna acknowledged with a blush
and a trembling of her long eyelashes. It was a very pleasant family
reunion, for John did his best to be agreeable.
"Oh, John, please be careful. There's an advertisement I want to save,"
Anna exclaimed, as she saw her brother tearing a strip from the Herald
with which to light his cigar, but as she spoke, the flame curled around
the narrow strip, and Dr. Richards had lighted his cigar with the name
and address appended to the advertisement which had so interested Anna.
How disturbed she was when she found that nought was left save the
simple wants of the young girl.
"Let's see," and taking the mutilated sheet, Dr. Richards read the
"Wanted, by a young unfortunate married woman."
"That unfortunate may mean a great deal more than you imagine," he said.
"Yes, but she distinctly says married. Don't you see, and I had really
some idea of writing to her."
"I'm sorry I was so careless, but there are a thousand unfortunate women
who would gladly be your maid, little sister. I'll send you out a score,
if you say so," and John laughed.
"Has anything of importance occurred in this slow old town?" he
inquired, after Anna had become reconciled to her loss. "Are the people
as odd as usual?"
"Yes, more so," Miss Eudora thought, "and more presuming," whereupon she
rehearsed the annoyances to which they had been subjected from their
changed circumstances, dwelling at length upon Mrs. Roe's tea drinking,
and the insult offered by inviting them, when she knew there would be no
one present with whom they associated.