When Maria reached home, she pushed open the front door, which was unlocked, and rushed violently in.

Wollaston and Gladys followed her, after a slight hesitation, but remained standing in the vestibule.
When Maria had come in sight of the house, she had perceived the regular motion of a rocking female head past the parlor light, and she knew that it was Ida.

Ida nearly always occupied a rocking-chair, and was fond of the gentle, swaying motion.
"There she is, rocking just as if the baby wasn't lost," Maria thought, with the bitterest revulsion and sarcasm.

When she opened the door she immediately smelled tea, the odor of broiling beefsteak and fried potatoes.

"Eating just as if the baby wasn't lost," she thought.