"Nobody is left who belongs to me. I am alone in the world." Mildred spoke rather coldly. She did not know who the stranger might be, and she could not even recall having seen him pass Periwinkle Cottage. Yet his face was full of goodness.
"You can't be alone. Look at all the people in Old Maxham."
"They don't care for me."
"Then you can care for them."
"None of them belong to me."
"But you belong to them."
Mildred was silent. She wished he would go, and leave her alone with her sorrow.
"Such a number of them as there are," he went on musingly. "And some of them need such a lot of looking after, and get so little."
A faint smile came to Mildred's lips. "If I could be useful to any one, I would be," she said.
"That's right. I thought you must be that sort from your face. Well, well, you won't wait long for somebody or other to be useful to. Can't do much here, can you?" And he glanced from one headstone to another. "They've gone through it all, poor dears, and they are free now.