"We'll get no swag to-night, Jeb. When she passes, blest if she don't
warn the beasts."




CHAPTER X


When Halcyone was nearly nineteen and had grown into a rare and radiant
maiden, the like of whom it would be difficult to find, an event
happened which was of the greatest excitement and importance to the
neighborhood. Wendover, which had been shut up for twenty years, was
reported to have been taken for a term by a very rich widow--or
_divorcée_--from America it was believed, and it was going to be
sumptuously done up and would be filled with guests. Mr. Miller took
pains to find out every detail from the Long Man at Applewood, and so
was full of information at his monthly repast with the old ladies. Mrs.
Vincent Cricklander was the new tenant's name. The Long Man had himself
taken her over the place when she first came down to look at it, and his
report was that she was the most beautiful lady he had ever seen, and
with an eye to business that could not be beaten. He held her in vast
respect.

Then Mr. Miller coughed; he had now come to the point of his discourse
which made him nervous.

For he had learned beyond the possibility of any doubt that Mrs.
Cricklander was, alas! not a lonely widow but had been divorced--only a
year or two ago. She had divorced her husband--not he her--he hastened