"Well, I don’t know," returned his sister dubiously. "It was only a warning, the doctors said, and I suppose Uncle Richard thinks he is all right now with care; and there’s a wheel within a wheel there, Gorham. Didn’t you notice to-day," lowering her voice dramatically, "that I didn’t say a word about Jack? Jack is a sore subject." She nodded her head several times by way of emphasis. "I dare say," returned the other. "The Bryants must have known that he was very much cut up by his father’s marriage." "Oh, they did; or the girls did. The mother never was allowed to know. I became very well acquainted with this child Mildred in the few days I stayed at Pearfield, but she told me nothing. Aunt Love told me the whole story, for Mrs. Van Tassel had confided in her. Aunt Love is perfectly devoted to Uncle Richard’s wife." "Humph!" "They have been through a great deal in a year. I suppose you heard through Jack, though I knew nothing about it, that Mrs. Van Tassel’s little brother and sister took scarlet fever and died in the same week." "Yes, I knew that. Jack felt it deeply. I am sure he must have written home very kindly about it. It occurred only about a month after the wedding." "Very likely he did. I don’t know. Then Mrs. Bryant grew weaker and weaker through the winter. They took her South, and surrounded her with every luxury, but in April she died." "No. I didn’t know that." "Yes, she died very peacefully and happily; but she had not been gone a fortnight when Uncle Richard had that stroke." "What a procession of calamities!" "I should think so. Well, Aunt Love says the worst part of it is, that Mrs. Van Tassel seems to connect all this misfortune with Jack’s anger at her. Something on the old idea of a curse, I suppose." Page’s lip curled slightly under his mustache. "I saw very little of Mrs. Van Tassel myself," continued his voluble sister. "Uncle Richard’s head was very easily tired. He had to keep very quiet, and she was with him constantly. You never saw such devotion." "No doubt," said Page ambiguously. "I can easily believe that she will not allow him out of her sight. It looks to me as if it were our duty to inform Jack of his father’s condition." "No, no. I saw enough of Uncle Richard to discover his wishes about that. He does not want to have Jack hurried. He does not consider his condition in the least alarming." Page’s face indicated his disapproval. "So Mrs. Van Tassel is to succeed in keeping Jack at a distance," he remarked. "I don’t think it is her doing." "Of course it is," said Page without heat. "Uncle Richard must know the circumstances." "He may suspect something, of course," replied Hilda, "but Aunt Love tells me they do not avoid the subject of Jack at all. Mrs. Van Tassel speaks of him with perfect naturalness, whenever necessity demands, and she has never told Uncle Richard of the angry parting that worried her so. He never asked her about it."