The Two Mrs. Abbotts Read Free Page A

time to notice these things while Barbara argued with her son and finally bribed him with a chocolate biscuit to depart in peace.
    â€œI suppose I shouldn’t,” said Barbara, sitting down.
    â€œWe all do,” replied Sarah comfortingly. “It’s so much the easiest way.”
    â€œBut it isn’t the right way,” said Barbara. “I know it isn’t but I do it all the same. I do it and then I’m sorry…and the next time it’s even harder.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you write to me, Barbara?” asked Sarah, who thought the subject unlikely to bear fruit. “Why on earth didn’t you write and tell me where you were? It was really very naughty of you. You could have trusted me not to give you away.”
    â€œOh yes, I knew that. I knew I could trust you, Sarah.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you write?”
    Barbara smiled affectionately. “I meant to write but all sorts of things happened. I got married for one thing.”
    â€œYou married your publisher?”
    â€œYes,” agreed Barbara, blushing. “Yes, I married Arthur. He had been so kind to me about the books.”
    â€œWhen everyone else was unkind.”
    â€œBut it wasn’t only that,” said Barbara hastily. She hesitated and then continued, “Really and truly I meant to write and tell you all about it, but I thought I’d wait for a little…and then I waited too long and that made it difficult. It wasn’t that I didn’t think about you,” explained Barbara. “I thought of you a lot, and I thought of Silverstream. I even thought it would be rather fun to go back to Silverstream and see what everyone was doing, but Arthur wouldn’t let me.”
    â€œHe seems to have some sense,” said Sarah dryly.
    â€œI should have had to be disguised, of course,” added Barbara in a thoughtful manner.
    â€œDisguised!” exclaimed Sarah, laughing.
    â€œWell, of course,” said Barbara. “They didn’t like me, did they?”
    â€œNo, but really,” began Sarah who had had a sudden vision of Barbara wearing a black beard and dark blue spectacles.
    â€œOh, it was just an idea ,” said Barbara apologetically. “I knew it was silly all the time…I shall never go back, now. It seems like a past life—Silverstream and Copperfield and all that. Tell me about everyone, Sarah.”
    Sarah complied with this comprehensive request to the best of her ability, and recited the chronicles of Silverstream in her usual fluent and slightly racy manner. It was a chronicle of births, deaths, and marriages interspaced with items of gossip and reports of internecine feuds. The Hathaways had got a new baby. Mrs. Carter had got a new wig, Mrs. Greensleeves had got a husband at last—such was the burden of her tale. She was in the middle of her story and Barbara was listening with all her ears when Arthur Abbott came home.
    â€œOh Arthur!” cried Barbara, jumping up to greet him. “This is Sarah, Mrs. Walker, you know. She’s come to give the bandaging lecture—isn’t it a nice surprise?”
    â€œVery nice,” said Arthur, shaking hands with his guest. “But hardly a surprise. We were expecting Mrs. Walker, weren’t we?”
    â€œBut I expected a woman ,” cried Barbara, laughing delightedly.
    â€œYes,” agreed Arthur. He looked at Mrs. Walker again in a puzzled manner.
    â€œWe knew each other long ago at Silverstream,” put in Sarah.
    â€œOh, I’ve got it now,” said Arthur. “It certainly is a delightful surprise to expect a stranger and find she’s a friend.”
    Barbara nodded with a pleased expression on her face, for Arthur had done it again. He could always be relied on to unravel her tangles and put things clearly and concisely. She was all the more pleased with Arthur for she wanted Sarah to see how clever he was—he had played up