"There, my dear lady, you ask me a question which I cannot answer. I am as much in the dark as you are."
"If this story is true, then we are one hundred and fifty dollars poorer than we supposed. It will be bad news for Robert."
"It need not be bad news for you, Mrs. Burton," said Wolverton, in an insinuating tone, shoving his chair a little nearer that occupied by the widow.
"How can it fail to be bad news for me?" she asked. "A loss like that I cannot help feeling."
"Do you think I would be hard on _you_, Mrs. Burton?" asked Wolverton, in the same soft voice.
"If you are disposed to wait for the money, or relinquish a part under the circumstances, Robert and I will feel very grateful to you, Mr. Wolverton."
"I might, upon conditions," said the agent, furtively shoving his chair a little nearer.
"What conditions?" asked Mrs. Burton, suspiciously.
"I will tell you, if you won't be offended. Mrs. Burton--Mary--you can't have forgotten the early days in which I declared my love for you. I--I love you still. If you will only promise to marry me--after a while--all shall be easy with you. I am a rich man--richer than people think, and can surround you with luxuries. I will be a father to that boy of yours, and try to like him for your sake. Only tell me that you will be mine!"
Mrs. Burton had been so filled with indignation that she let him run on, quite unable to command her voice sufficiently to stem the torrent of his words. As he concluded, she rose to her feet, her eyes flashing, and her voice tremulous with anger, and said: "Mr. Wolverton, are you aware that my poor husband has been dead but a month?"
"Mrs. Burton, then, I am perfectly acquainted with that fact, and would not have spoken now, but I saw you were anxious about the future, and I wished to reassure you. Of course I wouldn't hurry you; I only meant to get some kind of an answer that I might depend upon."
"And you thought that, after loving such a man as Richard Burton, I would be satisfied to take such a man as you?" said the widow, with stinging sarcasm.
"Richard Burton was not an angel," said Wolverton, harshly, for his pride was touched by the contempt which she made no effort to conceal.
"Don't dare to say anything against him!" said the widow, her eyes flashing ominously.