Then his expression changed.

He was relieved.
When he 'phoned to the Lights--using the depot 'phone--the station agent had seemed to consider his calling a woman over the lighthouse wire great fun.

The lightkeeper, so the agent said, was named Atkins, and was a savage woman-hater.

He would not see a woman, much less speak to one; it was a standing joke in the neighborhood, Seth's hatred of females.
That seemed to prove that Emeline and her husband were not reconciled and living together, at least.

Possibly their being neighbors was merely a coincidence.