He listened with the most ingratiating attention, knowing that he had a rich sensation to set before Plattville as a dish before a king, for Fisbee's was no confidential communication.

The old man might have told a part of his history long ago, but it had never occurred to him to talk about his affairs--things had a habit of not occurring to Fisbee--and the efforts of the gossips to draw him out always passed over his serene and absent head.
"It was a blow to my wife," the old man continued, sadly, "and I cannot deny that her reproaches were as vehement as her disappointment was sincere." He hurried over this portion of his narrative with a vaguely troubled look, but the intelligent Parker read poor Mrs.Fisbee's state of mind between the sentences.

"She never seemed to regard me in the same light again," the archaeologist went on.

"She did not conceal from me that she was surprised and that she could not look upon me as a practical man; indeed, I may say, she appeared to regard me with marked antipathy.

She sent for her sister, and begged her to take our daughter and keep her from me, as she did not consider me practical enough-I will substitute for her more embittered expressions--to provide for a child and instruct it in the world's ways.