"I suppose so." Kathryn felt a sinking in the region of the heart. "Are you ever lonely?" she asked suddenly. "Ever feel that you let your own life slip when you helped Father and me?"
Anna Morris's lips trembled as they always did when any one was kind to her; but she got control of herself at once--she could not afford the comfort of letting herself go!
"Oh, I don't know. Yes; sometimes. But who isn't lonely at times? Marriage can't prevent that and even your own private life, quite your own, is bound to have some lonely spells. There are all kinds of husbands. Some float about, heaven knows where; their wives must be lonely; and then the settled sort--dear me! I've often seen women terribly lonely right in the rooms with their husbands. I have come to the conclusion that once you pass the dangerous age you're as well placed one way as another. That is, if you are a woman."
Kathryn was looking unusually serious. While she was in this mood she clutched at seeming trifles and held them curiously.
"What was Brace's father like?" she suddenly asked.
"Why, what ails you, Kathie?" she asked suspiciously. "You've never taken any interest before. Why should you? A young girl and all that--why should you?"
"Tell me, Aunt Anna. I've often wondered."
Anna Morris sat down heavily in a chair. The older Northrup had once had power to stir her; was one of the men too poor for her to consider.
"Well," she began slowly, tremblingly, "he wasn't companionable at the last, but I shall always see _his_ side. Helen Northrup is a fine woman--I can understand how many take her part, but being married to her kind must seem like mental Mormonism. _She_ calls it developing--but a man like Thomas Northrup married a woman because she was the kind he wanted and he couldn't be expected to keep trace of all the kinds of women Helen Northrup ran into and--out of!"
"I don't know what you mean, Aunt Anna. Do talk sense."
Kathryn was almost excited. It was like reading what wasn't intended for innocent young girls to know.
"Well, first, Helen Northrup was just like all loving young girls, I guess--but when she didn't find _all_ she wanted, she took to developing, as she called it. For _my_ part I believe when a woman finds her husband isn't _all_ she expected, she ought to accept her lot and make the best of it."