But in a few moments she recovered herself again, and said, more calmly-- "I need not tell you that my husband has been absent for a week; he went away in a moment of anger, vowing that he would never return.
Hourly have I waited since, in the hope that he would come back; but, alas! I have thus far received from him neither word nor sign." Mrs.Marion here gave way to her feelings, and wept bitterly.
"Did he ever leave you before ?" asked Mrs.Darlington, as soon as she had grown calm.
"Once." "How long did he remain away ?" "More than a year." "Have you friends ?" "I have no relative but an aunt, who is very poor." Mrs.Darlington sighed involuntarily.

On that very day she had been seriously examining into her affairs, and the result was a conviction that, under her present range of expenses, she must go behind-hand with great rapidity.

Mr.and Mrs.Marion were to pay fourteen dollars a weeks Thus far, nothing had been received from them; and now the husband had gone off and left his family on her hands.

She could not turn them off, yet how could she bear up under this additional burden! All this passed through her mind in a moment, and produced the sigh which distracted her bosom.
"Do you not know where he has gone ?" she asked, seeking to throw as much sympathy and interest in her voice as possible, and thus to conceal the pressure upon her own feelings which the intelligence had occasioned.
Mrs.Marion shook her head.

She knew that, in the effort to speak, her voice would fail her.
For nearly the space of a minute there was silence.