She opened the door at his knock and he was startled by the look of her
face, so drawn and white, with great dark circles under her eyes. She
had not slept nor wept since he saw her, he felt sure. How long could
human frame endure like that? The strain was terrible for one so young
and frail. He found himself longing to take her away somewhere out of it
all. Yet, of course, there was nothing he could do.

She was full of quiet gratitude for what he had done. She said she knew
that without his kind intercession she would have had to pay far more.
She had been through it too recently before and understood that such
things were expensive. He rejoiced that she judged only by the standards
of a small country place, and knew not city prices, and therefore little
suspected how very much he had done to smooth her way. He told her of
the preacher he had secured that afternoon by telephone--a plain, kindly
man who had been recommended by the undertaker. She thanked him again,
apathetically, as if she had not the heart to feel anything keenly, but
was grateful to him as could be.

"Have you had anything to eat to-day?" he asked, suddenly.

She shook her head. "I could not eat! It would choke me!"

"But you must eat, you know," he said, gently, as if she were a little
child. "You cannot bear all this. You will break down."

"Oh, what does that matter now?" she asked, pitifully, with her hand
fluttering to her heart again and a wave of anguish passing over her
white face.