"Not even the wicked Devil?" asked Ruffie, but he was sleepy and tired and did not wait for an answer to that question.
And Anstice said to herself as she left him:
"If he feels lonely, don't I feel so too? I wonder if we shall ever be anything but lonely in this strange life of ours!"
[CHAPTER VII]
OFF ONCE MORE
MISS CARRIE'S funeral took place three days later, and Justin and Anstice both attended it. The little churchyard away in the lovely Fells struck Anstice as peculiarly beautiful. There was a great stillness about it, a peace. Miss Maybrick did not attend. They were told that she was not well enough to leave her room, but a week later she sent for Anstice.
"You seemed to be so interested in my sister," she said, "that I thought you might like to hear that we made up our quarrel about an hour after you had left us that day. She asked for my forgiveness, and I asked for hers. The last thing she said to me that night was—"
"'Good night, Hatty—I feel easier now—and thanks to Mrs. Holme, I'm hoping to have made my peace with God.' I tell you this, for I think you ought to know it."
"Thank you, I am so glad to hear it," said Anstice.
"Quarrels are a mistake," said Miss Maybrick slowly, "and even a reconciliation doesn't do away with the stings of them. They remain to haunt one. I'm going to be alone for the rest of my life. She was my last relative left."