She was afraid if she stopped work for a moment she would go mad . Mrs. Bowes watched her with a grim pity . At night she walked to prayer meeting in the schoolhouse a mile away . She always went , and Spencer was generally on hand to see her home . He was not there tonight . She wished she had not come . It was dreadful to have to sit still and think . She did not hear a word the minister said . She had to walk home with a crowd of girls and nerve herself to answer their merry sallies that no one might suspect . She was tortured by the fear that everyone knew her shame and humiliation and was pitying her . She got hysterically gay , but underneath all she was constantly trying to assign a satisfactory reason for Spencer 's nonappearance . He was often kept away , and of course he was a little cross at her yet , as was natural . If he had come before her then , she could have gone down in the very dust at his feet and implored his forgiveness . When she reached home she went into the garden and sat down . The calm of the night soothed her . She felt happier and more hopeful . She thought over all that had passed between her and Spencer and all his loving assurances , and the recollection comforted her . She was almost happy when she went in . Tomorrow is Sunday , she thought when she wakened in the morning . Her step was lighter and her face brighter .
Mrs. Bowes seemed to be XXXXX a bad humour .
At as before by if in into over that with