Do you want to know all about it?
Well, she was engaged to a man named Duncan: he was a widower with three or four children; he had the all-sorts shop down the village, only he moved last year.

He was a respectable man and had a comfortable little business, and I daresay he thought Miss Locke would make a good mother to his children.

She told me all about it, poor thing! She would have liked to marry Duncan; she was fond of him, and thought he would have made her a steady husband; but with Phoebe on her hands she could not do her duty to him or the children.
'"And there is Kitty; and he has enough of his own; and a sickly body like Phoebe would hinder the comfort of the house, and I have promised mother to take care of her." And then she asked my opinion.

Well, I could not but own that with the shop and the house to mind, and five children, counting Kitty, and a bedridden invalid, her hands would be over-weighted with work and worry.
'"I think so too," she answered, as quietly as possible, "and I have no right to burden Duncan.

I am sure he will listen to reason when I tell him Phoebe is against our marrying." And she never said another word about it.