She looked a thousand years old as she stood there beside the shaded electric light on the bureau; but her dark and wrinkled face contained infinite understanding and compassion. At the moment, in the midst of Caroline's terrible loneliness, Mammy Riah appeared almost beautiful.
"I have to move about, mammy, I can't sit still. You were there. You saw it all."
"I seed hit comin' befo' den, honey, I seed hit comin'."
"But you knew I'd gone out to see Mandy? You knew she was suffering?"
"Yas'm, I knows all dat, but I knows a heap mo'n dat, too."
"You saw Mrs. Blackburn? You heard?——"
"I 'uz right dar all de time. I 'uz right dar at de foot er de steers."
"Do you know why? Can you imagine why she should have done it?"
Mammy Riah wrinkled her brow, which was the colour and texture of stained parchment. "I'se moughty ole, and I'se moughty sharp, chile, but I cyarn' see thoo a fog. I ain' sayin' nuttin' agin Miss Angy, caze she wuz oner de Fitzhugh chillun, ef'n a wi'te nuss did riz 'er. Naw'm, I ain' sayin' nuttin 't'all agin 'er—but my eyes dey is done got so po' dat I cyarn' mek out whar she's a-gwine en whut she's a-fishin' fur."
"I suppose she was trying to make me leave. But why couldn't she have come out and said so?"