Then she went to the Den to meet a man who had promised, she said, to be there, but he never came, and before daybreak Grizel could usually induce her to return home.

Latterly she had persuaded her mamma to wait for him in the old Lair, because it was less cold there, and she had got her to do this last night.

Her mamma did not seem very unwell, but she fell asleep, and she died sleeping, and then Grizel went back to Double Dykes for linen and straiked her.
Some say in Thrums that a spade was found in the Lair, but that is only the growth of later years.

Grizel had done all she could do, and through the long Saturday she sat by the side of the body, helpless and unable to cry.

She knew that it could not remain there much longer, but every time she rose to go and confess, fear of the indignities to which the body of her darling mamma might be subjected pulled her back.