It just seemed to me that you were the very woman for me if you 'd only take me . Will you , Adelia ? I 've got a good farm and house , and I 'll try to make you happy . '' It was not a very romantic wooing , perhaps . But Adelia was forty and had never been a romantic little body even in the heyday of youth . She was a practical woman , and Young Thomas was a fine looking man of his age with abundance of worldly goods . Besides , she liked him , and the gossip had made her think a good deal about him of late . Indeed , in a moment of candour she had owned to herself the very last Sunday in church that she would n't mind if the story were true . `` I 'll -- I 'll think of it , '' she said . This was practically an acceptance , and Young Thomas so understood it . Without loss of time he crossed the kitchen , sat down beside Adelia , and put his arms about her plump waist . `` Here 's a kiss Charlie sent me to give you , '' he said , giving it . The Letters Just before the letter was brought to me that evening I was watching the red November sunset from the library window . It was a stormy , unrestful sunset , gleaming angrily through the dark fir boughs that were now and again tossed suddenly and distressfully in a fitful gust of wind . Below , in the garden , it was quite dark , and I could only see dimly the dead leaves that were whirling and dancing uncannily over the roseless paths . The poor dead leaves -- yet not quite dead ! There was still enough unquiet life left in them to make them restless and forlorn . They hearkened yet to every call of the wind , who cared for them no longer but only played freakishly with them and broke their rest . I felt sorry for the leaves as I watched them in that dull , weird twilight , and angry -- in a petulant fashion that almost made me laugh -- with the wind that would not leave them in peace . Why should they -- and I -- be vexed with these transient breaths of desire for a life that had passed us by ?
I was in the grip of a bitter loneliness that XXXXX -- so bitter and so insistent that I felt I could not face the future at all , even with such poor fragments of courage as I had gathered about me after Father 's death , hoping that they would , at least , suffice for my endurance , if not for my content .
Adelia Charlie Thomas evening gossip house kiss left paths twilight