— 15 —“How well you look!” exclaimed Susan. “It seems absurd for you to wear even half mourning. You are a different person since you came here.”
“I was leading a very dull existence—there was nothing in it all,” murmured the widow. “I don’t know how I endured it—I was really dying, I think—in my mind and spirit.”
“It was the life you chose,” said Mrs. Rue curiously.
“Chose! I never had a chance! I simply did not know what was in the world!” Olivia Sacret laughed. “But we must consider your affairs, not mine. I want to help you. I’ve been thinking it all over and I feel sure you ought to have a divorce and marry Sir John Curle.”
Susan colored beautifully, golden and rosy she smiled on her friend. The two ladies were walking in the garden at the back of the ponderous ugly house. The cro
