Grace started out, but came back into the room to kiss them, and they saw that she was smiling; it had been long since poor Grace had smiled!
"I'll go up to my chamber and wave the lantern when I get there, ef all's well," she told them. "An' I can always see your light, Ma Cary!"
They watched, standing shivering in the doorway, until her lantern disappeared at the bend of the road. Tim, aroused by their voices, cried out, and Eleanor went to him.
Mother Cary and Rosamund began to straighten the room, putting away the boxes and pails that had been opened for Grace's basket. Rosamund was so intent on her thoughts that she would not have noticed that her own cheeks were wet, if she had not seen Mother Cary's eyes brimming with tears. After a while she cried,
"Oh, I don't see how she can walk that far, and at night, too! Why wouldn't you let her wait for Pa Cary?"
The old woman shook her head. "Honey," she said, "ef all is as I make it out to be, Grace won't go all that way alone and un'tended. The woods around here have years an' eyes, an' ef her foot stumbles, there'll be someone there to hold her up, you mark my words."
"Oh, she is not strong enough!" the girl still protested.
Then Mother Cary leaned towards her, took the white hand in both her own, and asked, "Honey, ef 'twas your man, wouldn't you go?"
Rosamund threw back her head with a sob, and Mother Cary opened her arms.