"
Clara crossed the room, and kneeling on the carpet before her, said:
"My dear soul, is it the one you told me of?"
"Yes, yes," said Jane, "the very one; gall and worm-wood I drank, and
all for him; he ran away and--"
"Yes," added Aunt Hildy, "tell it all. Silas and our boy went with him,
father and son, and Satan led 'em all."
"Has he suffered much?" said Clara.
"Oh, yes, marm, but he says he can't live without me! He hain't never
been married; I'm fifty-four, and he's the same age."
"Jane," said Clara, "I guess it will be all right; let him stay with
you."
"How it looks," interrupted Jane; "they'll all know him."
"Never mind. The Home is a sort of public institution now; let him stay,
and in three weeks I'll tell you all about it."
"Get right up off this floor, you angel woman, and lemme set on the sofy
with you," said Jane.
Louis and I left the room, and after an hour or so Jane went over the
hill, and Aunt Hildy stepped as firmly as before she came. Poor Aunt
Hildy, this was the sorrow she had borne. I was glad she knew they were
dead, for uncertainty is harder to bear than certainty. I wondered how
it came that I should never have known and dimly remembered something
about some one's going away strangely, when I was a little girl. My
mother had, like all Aunt Hildy's friends, kept her sorrow secret, and
she told me it was a rare occurrence for Aunt Hildy to mention it even
to her, whom she had always considered her best friend.
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