"Yes; she was very ill for a time; and then Miss Faith gave up her hospital, and came home to nurse her. Of course it sounds very bad, and the poor thing has suffered a good deal one way and another; but how do you know that it was not all for the best?" finished Cathy, solemnly. "Think if that accident had never happened, and she had married him, and then found that he was not worthy. To be tied for life to a man, and then to see him sink lower and lower, to despise one's own husband! Could you imagine any greater torment than that? If it were I, I know I should get to hate him. Nothing should make me live with such a man; I would beg my bread first," cried the girl, with sparkling eyes, and setting her small white teeth together. "To despise one's husband! oh, Queenie, think how dreadful!" "I don't suppose such a thing could happen to either of us. Poor Miss Charity! perhaps it was a blessing in disguise after all; but to think of caring for D'Aubigné's 'Reformation', and copying out all those rubbishing extracts, after living through such a tragedy as that! it seems so incomprehensible." "Do you think the sun and the moon ought to have stood still in her little firmament? don't you know hearts are broken every day, and the world goes on just as usual?" returned Cathy, sententiously. She and Queenie seemed to have changed characters that afternoon; it was Cathy who was calm and philosophical. At another time her old-fashioned wisdom would have provoked a smile, but Queenie was too much in earnest. "I should have thought her story would have been more plainly written in her face. If it had been Miss Faith now-- Cathy, you look queer; has Miss Faith ever had a story too?" "Well, not exactly. I don't know, no one does; but I always fancied there was some attraction beside the sick children in that hospital. Langley's suspicions were aroused when she went over to Carlisle once; but she would not like me to repeat such nonsense." "But why should I not know? Oh, Cath! there could never be any harm in telling me." "Well, as it was ten years ago, perhaps not. I don't know what made Langley say such a thing, but she spoke to me once of a dark young surgeon, who came up to them in the ward, and talked to them for a long time. Langley said nothing crossed her mind until she saw him look at Miss Faith, and then, somehow, the thought got into her mind." "Nothing but a look?" "My dear, there is a great deal to be read in looks," returned Cathy, demurely. "It was just the beginning, I dare say, of a possible romance. When Miss Charity's trouble happened, and poor Miss Faith came home to nurse her, every one said it was grief at her sister's state that made her so grave and unlike herself; but Langley always believes that that dark young surgeon had something to do with it, and so do I. I dare say this was one of the 'might-have-beens' that have spoiled many women's lives."