Fidelity

Excerpt from Chapter 1: Cora did not appear to get from their silence that she was violating Freeport custom. "Her mother died just about a year after Ruth—left, didn't she?" she pursued. "About that," he tersely answered. "Died of a broken heart," murmured Mrs. Lawrence. "She died of pneumonia," was his retort, a little sharp for a young man to an older woman. Her slight wordless murmur seemed to comment on his failure to see. She turned to Cora with a tolerant, gently-spoken, "I think Deane would have to admit that there was little force left for fighting pneumonia. Certainly it was a broken life!"—that last was less gently said. Exasperation showed in his shifting of position. "It needn't have been," he muttered stubbornly.