The Aristocratic Miss Brewster by Joseph C. Lincoln

And now Wapatomac was once more furnished with a new topic of conversation and again it was a person bearing the aristocratic name of Brewster who had supplied it. But this time that person was not Mary--she was but secondary in the public interest; the real hub about which rumor and speculation revolved was her half brother Benjamin, the unexpected arrival from the far and romantic West. The noon train of Saturday brought him to town and by the evening of Monday that town knew all there was to learn about him and a great deal of which it is quite probable he himself was unaware. He was a widower, his wife had been dead but a few months. He was rich. He was "real sick," that is to say he was "not a bit well," there was something the matter with his heart, or his lungs, or some important section of his interior. He had come on to visit his half sister and the old house where he had spent his boyhood and the visit was a tremendous surprise to Mary. As for Azure Crisp, she was reported to have said at Gallup's store, whither she had come that Saturday evening to purchase additional supplies for the next day's dinner, that she was never "struck dumber" than she was when she answered his knock and found him standing on the step. And a surprise which struck Mrs. Crisp dumb must have been, all agreed, a surprise indeed.

Cross-questioned concerning the length of his visit Azure was obliged to confess that she did not know.