Or she is in Europe.'"

"The young people had brought a basket with flowers from their place, and
now laid them over several of the grassy mounds. 'Give me some of yours,'
said one to the other, presently; 'I've not enough for grandmother's.'"

"Ethel took me rather sharply by the arm. 'Did you hear that?' she asked."

"'It can't be she, you know,' said I. 'He would have come back from
Europe.'"

"But we found it out at lunch. It was she, and she had been dead for
fifteen years."

"Ethel and I talked it over in the train going up to town on Monday
morning. We had by that time grown calmer. 'If it is not false
pretences,' said she, 'and you cannot sue him for damages, and if it is
not stealing or something, and you cannot put him in prison, what are you
going to do to him, Richard?'"

"As this was a question which I had frequently asked myself during the
night, having found no satisfactory answer to it, I said: 'What would you
do in my place, Ethel?' But Ethel knew."

"'I should find out when he sails, and meet his steamer with a cowhide.'"

"'Then he would sue me for damages.'"

"'That would be nothing, if you got a few good cuts in on him.'"