He was not yet through with his family. Coming back into his room, his hand again pressed upon his side as though Ellen's weight had exhausted him, he found a figure, large, bonneted, with hands humbly folded. He had a dreadful fear that Manda meant to announce her departure.
"Well, Manda!"
"I have something to say," said Manda in her humblest tone.
"Sit down, do."
Manda shook her head. There were proprieties to be observed by a widow in her position and she knew them.
"I should be called Mrs. Sassaman," said she. "I don't mind Manda, but it is as if I had lost respect for him."
Levis suppressed a hysterical impulse.
"Of course you shall be called Mrs. Sassaman!" said he. "We have all been thoughtless."
When she had gone, he lay down upon the old sofa, still showing the impress of Ellen's body. He had thought of himself till this moment as a young man, but a man is young no longer when his son sets up his will against him. He looked age in the face; he remembered the senility through which many pass to their end. Then he turned his cheek against the pillow which was warm and a little damp. It somehow comforted him.