But the widow was not publicly anguished.

She donned a gown and bonnet of black in testimony of her bereavement, but there was no unnecessary flaunt of crape in her decently symbolic garb.
As Aunt Delia McCormick phrased it, she was not in "heavy mourning,"-- merely "in light distress." The town was content to let it go at that, especially after the adjustment of certain formalities which enabled the widow for a time to suspend her work of ministering to its higher wants.
The railway company had at first, it appeared, been disposed to view its removal of Potts very lightly indeed; not only because of his unimposing appearance, but by reason of his well-attested mental condition at the time of the occurrence--a condition clearly self-induced, and one that placed him beyond those measures of safety which a common carrier is obliged to exercise in behalf of its patrons.
But a package of letters had been discovered among the meagre belongings of the unfortunate man, and these had placed the matter in a very different light.

They showed conclusively that the victim had been of importance, a citizen of rare values in any community that he might choose to favor with his presence.
Truman Baird settled the case and, after these letters had been appraised by the corporation's attorney, he succeeded in extorting the sum of eight hundred dollars from the railway as recompense to the widow for the loss of her husband's services.

I considered that the company would have given up at least five hundred more to avoid being sued for the death of a man who had been able to evoke those letters; but I did not say so, for the case was Truman's and eight hundred dollars were many.

Westley Keyts thought they were, indeed, a great many, and outrageously excessive as a cold money valuation of Potts.