"Doctor been?"
"No."
"I was over at Noyes this morning about the bridge. Stirling gave me luncheon. I don't know where I'm going to get the money for it, with Aunt Louisa in this state. It's her business to repair the bridge. It's going to cost hundreds."
Janey had heard all this before many times. She was aware that Roger was only marking time.
"When I was over there," continued Roger, "I saw Bartlet, and he told me Mary Deane—you know who I mean?"
"Perfectly."
"I heard the child, the little girl, had died suddenly last week. Croup or something. They ought to have let me know. The funeral was yesterday."
"Poor woman!"
"She and the old servant between them carried the little coffin themselves along the dyke and across the ford. Wouldn't let anyone else touch it. I heard about it from Bartlet. He ought to have let me know. I told him so. He said he thought I did know. That's Bartlet all over. And he said he went up to see her next day, and—and she was gone."