She went on soothing Barney, as if he had been her child, with no
more shame in it, until he raised his white face from her breast of
his own accord.
"Oh, Charlotte, you will stay to-night, won't you?" he pleaded.
"Yes, I'll stay," said Charlotte. Young as Charlotte was, she had
watched with the sick and sat up with the dead many a time. So she
and the doctor's wife watched with Deborah Thayer that night. Rebecca
came, but she was not strong enough to stay. The next day Charlotte
assisted in the funeral preparations. It made a great deal of talk in
the village. People wondered if Barney would marry her now, and if
she would sit with the mourners at the funeral. But she sat with her
father and mother in the south room, and time went on after Deborah
died, and Barney did not marry her.
Chapter XII
A few days after Deborah's funeral Charlotte had an errand at the
store after supper. When she went down the hill the sun had quite
set, but there was a clear green light. The sky gave it out, and
there seemed to be also a green glow from the earth. Charlotte went
down the hill with the evening air fresh and damp in her face. Lilacs
were in blossom all about, and their fragrance was so vital and
intense that it seemed almost like a wide presence in the green
twilight.
She reached Barney's house, and passed it; then she came to the
Thayer house.
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