I was silent for a minute, and then I said, somewhat nervously:
"Excuse me if I am rude; but I am so much interested in Richard,
since he has been so kind to me, a perfect stranger, that I should
like to ask a question about him."

"Well," said old Hammond, "if he were not 'kind', as you call it, to
a perfect stranger he would be thought a strange person, and people
would be apt to shun him. But ask on, ask on! don't be shy of
asking."

Said I: "That beautiful girl, is he going to be married to her?"

"Well," said he, "yes, he is. He has been married to her once
already, and now I should say it is pretty clear that he will be
married to her again."

"Indeed," quoth I, wondering what that meant.

"Here is the whole tale," said old Hammond; "a short one enough; and
now I hope a happy one: they lived together two years the first
time; were both very young; and then she got it into her head that
she was in love with somebody else. So she left poor Dick; I say
POOR Dick, because he had not found any one else. But it did not
last long, only about a year. Then she came to me, as she was in the
habit of bringing her troubles to the old carle, and asked me how
Dick was, and whether he was happy, and all the rest of it. So I saw
how the land lay, and said that he was very unhappy, and not at all
well; which last at any rate was a lie. There, you can guess the
rest. Clara came to have a long talk with me to-day, but Dick will
serve her turn much better. Indeed, if he hadn't chanced in upon me