She wished to forestall thought; to keep down dread; to fill the house so full of cheer that no whisper should reach her from that spirit-world she had come to fear.

She had seen--or believed that she had seen--a specter, and she had certainly heard a laugh that had come from no explicable human source.
The brightness of the sunshiny day aided her unconsciously in this endeavor.

But I foresaw the moment when this brightness would disappear and her friends say good-by.

Then the shadows must fall again more heavily than ever, because of their transient lifting.

I almost wished she had indeed gone with her husband, and found myself wondering why he had not asked her to do so when he found what it was that depressed her.
Perhaps he had, and it was she who had held back.