"Indeed!" a little querulously. "Why don't you ask him?"

"I am not over-anxious on the subject. If he has any thing to
confide to me, he will do it in his own good time."

"Oh! you're too patient." The tone and manner of Miss Grace showed
that she, at least, was not overstocked with the virtue.

"Why should I be impatient?"

"Why? Goodness me! Do you suppose that if I had a husband--and it's
a blessed thing for me that I haven't--that I'd see him going off,
day after day, with lips sealed like an oyster, and remain as
patient as a pet lamb tied with a blue ribbon? Oh dear! no! Grace
Markland's made of warmer stuff than that. I like people who talk
right out. _I_ always do. Then you know where to place them. But
Edward always had a hidden way about him."

"Oh, no, Grace; I will not agree to that for a moment," said Mrs.
Markland.

"Won't you, indeed! I'm his sister, and ought to know something
about him."

"And I'm his wife," was the gentle response to this.

"I know you are, and a deal too good for him--the provoking man!"
said Grace, in her off-hand way, drawing her arm within that of Mrs.
Markland, to whom she was strongly attached. "And that's what riles
me up so."