"Mademoiselle!"
"What have I said?"
"Daniel Offley is dead. I carried him into his own house to die, a brave man when few were brave."
"I have had my lesson," she said. There were tears in her eyes, a little break in her voice.
"And I, Pearl; and God was good to me."
"And to me," she sobbed; "I beg thy pardon—but I want to say—I must say that thou too wert brave, oh, as brave as any—for I know—I have heard."
"Oh, Pearl, you must not say that! I did as others did." She had heard him call her Pearl unreproved, or had she not? He would set a guard on his tongue. "It is chilly. Let us go in," for they had stood at the gate as they talked.
It was their last walk, for soon the stripped trees and the ground were white with an early snowfall and the autumn days had gone, and on the first of December reluctantly they moved to the city.