Perhaps in a fortnight's time she would be a widow.

Such things have happened often.

'And then what shall I do with her ?' thought the sister, irritably,--recoiling from a sudden vision of Nelly in sorrow, which seemed to threaten her own life with even greater dislocation than had happened to it already.

'I must have my time to myself!--freedom for what I want'-- she thought to herself, impatiently, 'I can't be always looking after her.' Yet of course the fact remained that there was no one else to look after Nelly.

They had been left alone in the world for a good while now.