"Poor thing!" muttered he, as the widow departed on her errand, "she's seen better days and better circumstances than she'll ever see again, I'm sure.

Strange, I could never learn her history.

Tom Sheppard was always a close file, and would never tell whom he married.

Of this I'm certain, however, she was much too good for him, and was never meant to be a journeyman carpenter's wife, still less what is she now.

Her heart's in the right place, at all events; and, since that's the case, the rest may perhaps come round,--that is, if she gets through her present illness.