Possibly she might have come home even.
Then he was hailed by the stout woman standing at the door of the next house.

"Heard anything yet, Andrew ?" Andrew shook his head, and looked with despairing eyes at the windows where he used to see Ellen's little face.

She had not come, then, for these women would have known it.

He entered the house, and Fanny greeted him with a tremulous cry.

"Have you heard anything; oh, have you heard anything, Andrew ?" Eva sprang forward and clutched him by the arm.
"Have you ?" [Illustration: Eva sprang forward and clutched him by the arm] Andrew shook his head, and moved her hand from his arm, and pushed past her roughly.
Fanny stood in his way, and threw her arms around him with a wild, sobbing cry, but he pushed her away also with sternness, and went to the kitchen sink to wash his hands.