"Poor little mamma! She's all tired out, so she is!" exclaimed Mrs. McAlpin, as she and her mother were walking out together after they had stopped for the night. "You must change places to-morrow with Mrs. O'Dowd. Then you can ride in Captain Ranger's big family wagon with the children and me, and get your much-needed rest."
"Do you mean to say that I shall ride in that widower's wagon. Daphne, and his wife only just buried? What would people say?"
"Why should you think or care what anybody says, so long as you do your duty, mamma? Captain Ranger is a gentleman. His heart is buried with his wife. Don't be a silly! Beg pardon, mamma. I didn't mean to be slangy or saucy. We've other troubles in store, and ought not to be quarrelling between ourselves. Do you know that Donald McAlpin is following, or at least shadowing, this train?"
Mrs. Benson blanched.
"Why do you think that, Daphne?"
"I've seen him twice since we met that colony of freighters. If he persists in his persecutions, I'll kill him!"
"Do not talk that way, child. People have been made innocent victims of the scaffold for having made threats which they never meant to and never did fulfil."
"I have nothing to say against him as a man. But before God he is not my husband, no matter what the law may have decreed, and I am living a lie when I permit the outrage. He would make you an agreeable husband, because you love him. I've known this for many a day. If I were dead or divorced, you could become his wife, and then you would both be happy. We are all miserable as it is."
"But think of the looks of it, daughter! What would people say?" Her eyes grew suddenly aglow with a
