"And ye told him about your goin'?"
"Yes, Martha." Her frame was shaking with her sobs.
"And about Lucy?"
"No, I could not."
Martha leaned forward and laid her hand on Jane's shoulder.
"Poor lassie!" she said, patting it softly. "Poor lassie! That was the hardest part. He's big and strong and could 'a' comforted ye. My heart aches for ye both!"
CHAPTER VIII
AN ARRIVAL
With the departure of Jane and Lucy the old homestead took on that desolate, abandoned look which comes to most homes when all the life and joyousness have gone from them. Weeds grew in the roadway between the lilacs, dandelions flaunted themselves over the grass-plots; the shutters of the porch side of the house were closed, and the main gate always thrown wide day and night in ungoverned welcome, was seldom opened except to a few intimate friends of the old nurse.