Who is Stephen from the story, The Wives of the Dead?

Stephen, Mary's former suitor, whom the narrator describes as a "rejected lover," brings her the news that her husband is still alive. He is described as "a young man in a sailor's dress, wet as if he had come out of the depths of the sea." After he comes home from a voyage, his mother tells him the bad news about Mary's husband. Stephen rushes to assure Mary that her husband is still alive, saying that he saw him on a brig the day before, and that same brig will be in port by daylight. The narrator describes him as a "generous seaman."