And Margaret, with her precise, funny ways, her perpetual talk about "the family," lent herself to the cruel gift.
And then Mrs.Bunting's mind--her poor, weak, tired mind--wandered off to young Chandler.

A funny thing love was, when you came to think of it--which she, Ellen Bunting, didn't often do.

There was Joe, a likely young fellow, seeing a lot of young women, and pretty young women, too,--quite as pretty as Daisy, and ten times more artful--and yet there! He passed them all by, had done so ever since last summer, though you might be sure that they, artful minxes, by no manner of means passed him by,--without giving them a thought! As Daisy wasn't here, he would probably keep away to-day.

There was comfort in that thought, too.
And then Mrs.Bunting sat up, and memory returned in a dreadful turgid flood.

If Joe did come in, she must nerve herself to hear all that--that talk there'd be about The Avenger between him and Bunting.
Slowly she dragged herself out of bed, feeling exactly as if she had just recovered from an illness which had left her very weak, very, very tired in body and soul.
She stood for a moment listening--listening, and shivering, for it was very cold.