She dragged her limbs almost like a paralyzed woman, and her eyes looked dazed.

"I'll be back--as soon as I can," she said; but her lips seemed stiff and scarcely able to move.

"You look after the house." She was turning away, when she suddenly turned, and stooping, kissed Jessie for the first time in her life; and Jessie, looking up, flung her arms around her stepmother's neck and kissed her in return.

This new trouble had brought them very close.
With tear-blinded eyes Jessie turned and groped her way back into the house to face that hardest of all trials--suspense.

Slowly, slowly she dragged herself down to the kitchen to see to the fire, then up the stairs to Miss Patch to tell her the news and wait.
Before long, though, they both crept down to the kitchen, so as to be at hand when needed; but Jessie could not keep still, the suspense was hard to bear, and made her restless.