I suppose"-- he stopped, and in a whisper added: "I suppose you haven't heard anything, have you ?" "No; have you ?" "Not a word," answered the ship-chandler gravely.
"I thought perhaps you might have had a letter," urged Felix.
"Not a line of any kind," came the answer, followed by a sidewise movement of the gray head, as if its owner had long since abandoned hope from that quarter.
"Do you think anything is the matter ?" "Nothin', or I should 'a' 'eard.

My notion is that Martha kep' on to Toronto with that sick man she nursed on the steamer.

Maybe she's got work stiddy and isn't a-goin' to come back." "But she would have let you KNOW ?" There was a ring of anxiety now, tinged with a certain impatience.
"Perhaps she would, Mr.Felix, and perhaps she wouldn't.

Since our mother died Martha gets rather cocky sometimes.

Likes to be her own boss and earn her own living.