"Didn't she ever before?"

"No, ma'am."

"Well, she may have taken a notion to. Maybe I was mistaken. The way
your father spoke last night sort of made me think so."

Aunt Maria made up her mind that if Harry was out late the next
Sunday, and the next Wednesday, that would be a test of the
situation. The first time had been Wednesday, and Wednesday and
Sunday, in all provincial localities, are the acknowledged courting
nights. Of course it sometimes happens that an ardent lover goes
every night; but Harry Edgham, being an older man and a widower,
would probably not go to that extent.

He soon did, however. Very soon Maria and her aunt went to bed every
night before Harry came home, and Miss Ida Slome became more loving
towards Maria.

Wollaston Lee, boy as he was, child as he was, really suffered. He
lost flesh, and his mother told Aunt Maria that she was really
worried about him. "He doesn't eat enough to keep a bird alive," said
she.

It never entered into her heart to imagine that Wollaston was in love
with the teacher, a woman almost if not quite old enough to be his
mother, and was suffering because of her love for Harry Edgham.

One afternoon, when Harry's courtship of Ida Slome had been going on