"It isn't them, altogether," the other replied. Mrs. O'Neil looked at her in a sort of blind sympathy. She thought that the youth and sweetness of the young girl was what weighed so heavily on the young woman opposite. "But men will be men," she reflected, and tried to think of something to say, and couldn't.
The evening freight went roaring by.
"Why, I thought it went up before," Alva said.
"I did, too, but that must have been the wrecking-train; there must be a wreck on the road."
"Let's go out on the bridge!" Alva suggested. "I feel choked; I want fresh air, and there is a moon."
"Shall I go with you?"
"Yes, do."
"I'll tell Mary Cody."
While Mrs. O'Neil went for a shawl and to tell Mary Cody, Alva sought her big cape. Then they went out together into the frost, for the frost was sharp in the air.
"The woods will soon end being beautiful," the little woman said.