The Bachelors 
know especially if Silas had any religious habits. 
Did he, for instance, ever go to church? My 
uncle could not say. He supposed so; but 
obviously he did not know. He was, however, 
reminded of another incident he had heard of, 
two or three days or a week before Andrew 
Bachelor died. 
One of the near neighbours to the Bachelors 
had married a certain Milly Wicks. This 
woman seems to have been one of those gracious 
souls whom nature forms to be helpful, while 
sorrow teaches them good sense. Daughter, 
she was, of a publican—an intemperate man, 
in whose lifetime she had no comfort. Then, 
he dying, his widow married again, and again 
Milly Wicks had small reason to bless fate. 
Another acquaintance was in love with her, 
but not she with him. She married a man who 
took to drink and ill-used her but died soon. 
Meanwhile the other acquaintance, from being 
a groom in England, had gone to the United 
States on a ranche. But somehow the news 
reached him that his Milly was left a widow, 
whereupon he returned home, found her, and 
married her. He proved a tolerably good 
husband, and, after a turn at inn-keeping, even- 
tually settled down with his wife near to the 
Bachelors’ farm. 
To this woman came one evening Silas Bachelor, 
gi 
