Their sympathies were all with Mrs.Campbell; and when at the close of the services she approached to take a last look of her darling, they closed around her with exclamations of grief and tears of pity, though even then some did not fail to note and afterwards comment upon the great length of her costly veil, and the width of its hem! It was a long procession which followed Ella Campbell to the grave, and with bowed heads and hats uplifted, the spectators stood by while the coffin was lowered to the earth; and then, as the Campbell carriage drove slowly away, they dispersed to their homes, speaking, it may be, more tenderly to their own little ones, and shuddering to think how easily it might have been themselves who were bereaved.
Dark and dreary was the house to which Mrs.Campbell returned.

On the stairs there was no patter of childish feet.

In the halls there was no sound of a merry voice, and on her bosom rested no little golden head, for the weeping mother was childless.

Close the shutters and drop the rich damask curtains, so that no ray of sunlight, or fragrance of summer flowers may find entrance there to mock her grief.

In all Chicopee was there a heart so crushed and bleeding as hers?
Yes, on the grass-plat at the foot of Mrs.Bender's garden an orphan girl was pouring out her sorrow in tears which almost blistered her eyelids as they fell.
Alice at last was sleeping, and Mary had come out to weep alone where there were none to see or hear.