"
"That would be about the only piece of foolishness you have n't committed
already!" replied Louisa, with a biting satire that would have made any man
let go of the trigger in case he had gone so far as to begin pulling it.
"Where is she?" John went on, without anger at her sarcasm. "Where is she, how
is she, what is she living on, is she well, is she just as bitter as she was
at first, does she ever speak of coming back? Tell me something, tell me
anything. I will know something. I say I _will_!"
Louisa's calm demeanor began to show a little agitation, for she was not used
to the sight of emotion. "I can't tell you where Susanna is, for I made her a
solemn promise I would n't unless you or Jack were in danger of some kind; but
I don't mind telling you this much, that she's well and in the safest kind of
a shelter, for she's been living from the first in a Shaker Settlement."
"Shaker Settlement!" cried John, starting up from his seat on the steps.
"What's that? I know Shaker egg-beaters and garden-seeds and rocking-chairs
and oh, yes, I remember their religion's against marriage. That's the worst
thing you could have told me; that ends all hope; if they once get hold of a
woman like Susanna, they'll never let go of her; if they don't believe in a
woman's marrying a good man, they'd never let her go back to a bad one.
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