After a while the village people ceased to have the affairs of Barney Thayer and Charlotte Barnard particularly upon their minds.

As time went on, and nothing new developed in the case, they no longer dwelt upon it.

Circumstances, like people, soon show familiar faces, and are no longer stared after and remarked.

The people all became accustomed to Barney living alone in his half-furnished house season after season, and to Charlotte walking her solitary maiden path.

They seldom spoke of it among themselves; sometimes, when a stranger came to town, they pointed out Barney and Charlotte as they would have any point of local interest.
"Do you see that house ?" a woman bent on hospitable entertainment said as she drove a matronly cousin from another village down the street; "the one with the front windows boarded up, without any step to the front door?
Well, Barney Thayer lives there all alone.