That's over, and--" "It's _all_ over," interrupted Mrs.Gum; "over for ever in this world.
Gum, you are very hard-hearted." "And," he continued, with composure, "we may hope now to live down in time the blow he brought upon us, and hold up our heads again in the face of Calne.

We couldn't have done that while he lived." "We couldn't ?" "No.

Just dry up your useless tears, Nancy; and try to think that all's for the best." But, metaphorically speaking, Mrs.Gum could not dry her tears.

Nearly two years had elapsed since the fatal event; and though she no longer openly lamented, filling Calne with her cries and her faint but heartfelt prayers for vengeance on the head of the cruel monster, George Gordon, as she used to do at first, she had sunk into a despairing state of mind that was by no means desirable: a startled, timid, superstitious woman, frightened at every shadow..