"I don't doubt it," she said.
And in the silence of the sickroom, she presently fell asleep. Mrs.
Grumble lay with wide open eyes, staring at the door through which Mr.
Jeminy was to come. She felt quiet and happy; it seemed to her that
her pain was already over and done with. Framed in the doorway, in the
yellow lamplight, she beheld the fancies of her youth, the memories of
the past. She saw again the woman she had been, and watched, with eyes
filled with compassion, her early sorrows, and the troubles of her
later years. "It was all of no account," she said to herself, "but it
doesn't matter now." And she set herself to wait in patience for Mr.
Jeminy, who she never doubted would come to help her die.
Meanwhile the schoolmaster, in Aaron Bade's wagon, was rattling along
the road, with Juliet tight asleep in his arms. As he drew near his
home, he saw in the distance Barly Hill, and the lights of Barly Farm
shining across the valley. "I am coming home again," he said to them;
"I have no longer any pride.
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