Then she turned away to her work, without a word of greeting.

The boy Richard stared at her with a quiver, as of coming tears on his handsome face.

He whispered to Eugene, when she went into the pantry.
"Best let her alone," said Eugene.

"She's been so ever since." Not one of them knew of her promise to marry Lot Gordon, and Lot had bound Margaret Bean over to secrecy.

All the village was as yet ignorant of that, but there was enough besides to afford a choice bone of gossip to folk sunken in the monotony and isolation of a Vermont country winter.