Hitherto, she had always looked to her cousin for sympathy, for understanding, for loyal support.
Now she and all these things, and a thousand others--gentle, assuring, supporting--were gone.

And instead there was a horrible aching void.
For the whole afternoon and evening, and for the following forenoon, poor Lilla's loneliness grew to be a positive agony.

For the first time she began to realise the sense of her loss, as though all the previous suffering had been merely a preparation.

Everything she looked at, everything she remembered or thought of, became laden with poignant memory.

Then on the top of all was a new sense of dread.