after you went--so I sold that too. I never could sleep under much
clothes."

She became aware that her sister was looking at her more
attentively.

"I guess you've been in trouble too," Evelina said.

"Me? In trouble? What do you mean, Evelina?"

"You've had to pawn the things, I suppose," Evelina continued
in a weary unmoved tone. "Well, I've been through worse than that.
I've been to hell and back."

"Oh, Evelina--don't say it, sister!" Ann Eliza implored,
shrinking from the unholy word. She knelt down and began to rub
her sister's feet beneath the bedclothes.

"I've been to hell and back--if I AM back," Evelina
repeated. She lifted her head from the pillow and began to talk
with a sudden feverish volubility. "It began right away, less than
a month after we were married. I've been in hell all that time,
Ann Eliza." She fixed her eyes with passionate intentness on Ann
Eliza's face. "He took opium. I didn't find it out till long
afterward--at first, when he acted so strange, I thought he drank.
But it was worse, much worse than drinking."

"Oh, sister, don't say it--don't say it yet! It's so sweet
just to have you here with me again."