I knew that the spring of my days were going to end in winter.

Then I thought of how I had turned my back upon the whole world, all the world that I knew, to follow my mother's friends to Hillsbro'; how I had loved them, how I had given my whole heart and faith to John; how trusting, how satisfied, how happy I had been.

At last my heart swelled up in softer grief, and I wept with my face buried in my arms where I lay upon the hearth-rug.

And so after long grieving I sobbed myself to sleep, and wakened in the dark, towards morning, shuddering with cold in my thin dress.
The next day I was ill with a feverish cold, and Rachel tended me.

Never was there a nurse more tender, more patient, more attentive.