"For she could go home, you know, if that was the case." And here the sisters dropped the subject.
As for Helen, she still lingered in the silent graveyard.

She felt, with the unreasoning passion of youth, that the dead gave her more comfort than the living.

Lois had scarcely dared to speak to her since that talk in their sitting-room, and Dr.Howe's silence was like a pall over the whole house.

So she had come here to be alone, and try to fancy what her husband and her uncle had said to each other, for Dr.Howe had refused to enter into the details of his visit.
His interview with her husband had only resulted in a greater bitterness on the part of the rector.

He had waited for John Ward's answer to his letter, and its clear statement of the preacher's position, and its assertion that his convictions were unchangeable, gave him no hope that anything could be accomplished without a personal interview.