Part 14 (1/2)
But he isn't sure.”
”Nonsense,” said Dwight. ”Why, of course she's dead if he thinks so.”
”I had to be sure,” said Lulu.
At first dumb before this, Ina now cried out: ”Monona! Go upstairs to bed at once.”
”It's only quarter to,” said Monona, with a.s.surance.
”Do as mamma tells you.”
”But--”
”Monona!”
She went, kissing them all good-night and taking her time about it.
Everything was suspended while she kissed them and departed, walking slowly backward.
”Married?” said Mrs. Bett with tardy apprehension. ”Lulie, was your husband married?”
”Yes,” Lulu said, ”my husband was married, mother.”
”Mercy,” said Ina. ”Think of anything like that in our family.”
”Well, go on--go on!” Dwight cried. ”Tell us about it.”
Lulu spoke in a monotone, with her old manner of hesitation:
”We were going to Oregon. First down to New Orleans and then out to California and up the coast.” On this she paused and sighed. ”Well, then at Savannah, Georgia, he said he thought I better know, first. So he told me.”
”Yes--well, what did he _say_?” Dwight demanded irritably.
”Cora Waters,” said Lulu. ”Cora Waters. She married him down in San Diego, eighteen years ago. She went to South America with him.”
”Well, he never let us know of it, if she did,” said Dwight.
”No. She married him just before he went. Then in South America, after two years, she ran away again. That's all he knows.”
”That's a pretty story,” said Dwight contemptuously.
”He says if she'd been alive, she'd been after him for a divorce. And she never has been, so he thinks she must be dead. The trouble is,” Lulu said again, ”he wasn't sure. And I had to be sure.”
”Well, but mercy,” said Ina, ”couldn't he find out now?”
”It might take a long time,” said Lulu simply, ”and I didn't want to stay and not know.”
”Well, then, why didn't he say so here?” Ina's indignation mounted.
”He would have. But you know how sudden everything was. He said he thought about telling us right there in the restaurant, but of course that'd been hard--wouldn't it? And then he felt so sure she was dead.”