And when poor tortured Gertrude, unable to endure it any longer, hurried out of the room, Cousin Sophia asked mother if the blow hadn't affected Miss Oliver's mind.
"'I suffered the loss of two good kind partners,' she said, 'but it did not affect me like that.' "I should think it wouldn't! Those poor men must have been thankful to die.
"I heard Gertrude walking up and down her room most of the night.

She walked like that every night.

But never so long as that night.

And once I heard her give a dreadful sudden little cry as if she had been stabbed.

I couldn't sleep for suffering with her; and I couldn't help her.