It was as if a battery within her had been charged to its uttermost.

She was in some kind of electric communication with life.

She was tingling with the things coming to her.
So charged was she with new big things that it was hard to manage the affairs of her household as old things demanded they be managed that day.
She told Mrs.Prescott again how sorry she and Ann were that Ann had given way.

Mrs.Prescott received it with self-contained graciousness.
Her one comment was that she trusted when her son decided to marry he would content himself with a wife who had not gone upon a quest.
Katie smiled and agreed that it might get him a more comfortable wife.
The son himself she tried to avoid.

That thing which had tried to shape itself between her and Ann still remained there, a thing without body but vaguely outlined between Ann and all other things.
They had not drawn any nearer to it.