did bear it.

That winter was very sad. They learned nothing of Aaron Dunn till
about January; and then they heard that he was doing very well. He
was engaged on the Erie trunk line, was paid highly, and was much
esteemed. And yet he neither came nor sent! "He has an excellent
situation," their informant told them. "And a permanent one?" asked
the widow. "Oh, yes, no doubt," said the gentleman, "for I happen
to know that they count greatly on him." And yet he sent no word of
love.

After that the winter became very sad indeed. Mrs. Bell thought it
to be her duty now to teach her daughter that in all probability she
would see Aaron Dunn no more. It was open to him to leave her
without being absolutely a wolf. He had been driven from the house
when he was poor, and they had no right to expect that he would
return, now that he had made some rise in the world. "Men do amuse
themselves in that way," the widow tried to teach her.

"He is not like that, mother," she said again.

"But they do not think so much of these things as we do," urged the
mother.

"Don't they?" said Susan, oh, so sorrowfully; and so through the
whole long winter months she became paler and paler, and thinner and
thinner.

And then Hetta tried to console her with religion, and that perhaps
did not make things any better. Religious consolation is the best