"Was Thomas a sailor when you married him?" she asked.
"Yes, miss. He were bos'n on Cap'n Wegg's schooner the 'Lively Kate,'
an' I were livin' with Miss Mary, as come to be Mrs. Wegg arterward."
"Oh, I see. And were you blind then, Nora?"
"No, miss. I went blind arter our great trouble come to us."
"Trouble? Oh, I'm so sorry, dear. What was it?"
The old woman was silent for a time. Then she said:
"I'd better not mention it, I guess. Thomas likes to forgit, an' when I
gets cryin' an' nervous he knows I've been thinkin' 'bout the
old trouble."
Louise was disappointed, but changed the subject adroitly.
"And Miss Mary, who was afterward Mrs. Wegg. Did you love her, Nora?"
"Indeed I did, child."
"What was she like?"
"She were gentle, an' sweet, an' the mos' beautiful creetur in
all--in--in the place where we lived. An' her fambily was that proud an'
aristocratic thet no one could tech 'em with a ten-foot pole."
"I see. Did she love Captain Wegg?"
"Nat'rally, sense she married of him, an' fit all her fambily to do it.
An' the Cap'n were thet proud o' her thet he thought the world lay in
her sweet eyes."
"Oh. I had an idea he didn't treat her well," remarked the girl,
soberly.
"That's wrong," declared Nora, promptly. "Arter the trouble come--fer it
come to the Weggs as well as to Tom an' me--the Cap'n sort o' lost heart
to see his Mary cry day arter day an' never be comforted.
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