He shook his head to drive away these symptoms of what he would have called the “doldrums,” looked up and saw that he was nearly opposite the Clark cottage. He would drop in on Reliance now, this minute. She was always a first-class antidote for doldrums. He hitched the span to the gnawed post before the post office and walked around the buildings to the door of the millinery shop. Reliance was in the shop, making tucks in a yard of ribbon. “Hello, there!” he hailed, striding in and closing the door behind him. “Well, how are things in the hat line? Thought I’d stop and see if you could make Varunas a sunbonnet. He’s getting to be more of an old woman every day he lives.” Reliance looked up and smiled. “Hello, Foster,” she said. “You’re a stranger. It’s been a long while since you honored us this way. I hope a lot of folks saw you come in. It will be good for business. Sit down, won’t you?” He had not waited for the invitation. He sat in the chair usually occupied by Miss Makepeace, which squeaked a protest, and tossed his hat upon the top of the sewing machine. “All alone?” he queried. “Where’s your first mate?” “Abbie? Oh, she’s at home with a cold. She has been barkin’ and sneezin’ around here for three days, so I told her to stay at home and sneeze it through with a hot brick at her feet and a linseed poultice on her chest. She’ll be over it pretty soon. How are you?” “All right. Where’s the town superintendent?” “Who?... Oh, I suppose you mean Millard. He is out, too. He won’t be back for an hour.” “How do you know he won’t?” “Because he ought to be back now. Well, Foster, how do you like the prospect of being alone again in that big house of yours? Be a harder pull than ever for you, won’t it?” “You bet!... But, say,” leaning back in the chair and thrusting his hands into his pockets, “how did you know I was going to be alone? Isn’t there such a thing as privacy in this town?” “Not much. I should think you would have learned that by this time. There, there! don’t get mad. I don’t believe it is generally known yet. Esther told me herself, but she told me not to tell. She said you asked her not to talk about it much yet.” “Um-hum. Yes, I did. However, she can talk about it now as much as she wants to. She will be sailing in ten days or so. I only wish I was booked for the same ship.” Reliance held up the ribbon, measured the latest tuck and then folded another. “I was a little surprised when she said you wasn’t,” she observed. “The lawsuit is keepin’ you here, she told me.” “Yes, blast the thing! There, don’t talk about that. I’ve just come from a lawyers’ meeting and I have had enough for the present.... Yes, Esther is going across the water. She’ll stay there, too--until I figure it is good judgment to bring her home.” Miss Clark looked up, then down. She nodded.