Rilla copied it in her diary at the beginning of an entry in which she poured out the story of the hard week that had just passed . `` It has been such a dreadful week , '' she wrote , `` and even though it is over and we know that it was all a mistake that does not seem to do away with the bruises left by it . And yet it has in some ways been a very wonderful week and I have had some glimpses of things I never realized before -- of how fine and brave people can be even in the midst of horrible suffering . I am sure I could never be as splendid as Miss Oliver was . `` Just a week ago today she had a letter from Mr. Grant 's mother in Charlottetown . And it told her that a cable had just come saying that Major Robert Grant had been killed in action a few days before . `` Oh , poor Gertrude ! At first she was crushed . Then after just a day she pulled herself together and went back to her school . She did not cry -- I never saw her shed a tear -- but oh , her face and her eyes ! '' ' I must go on with my work , ' she said . ` That is my duty just now . ' `` I could never have risen to such a height . `` She never spoke bitterly except once , when Susan said something about spring being here at last , and Gertrude said , '' ` Can the spring really come this year ? ' `` Then she laughed -- such a dreadful little laugh , just as one might laugh in the face of death , I think , and said , '' ` Observe my egotism . Because I , Gertrude Oliver , have lost a friend , it is incredible that the spring can come as usual . The spring does not fail because of the million agonies of others -- but for mine -- oh , can the universe go on ? ' '' ` Do n't feel bitter with yourself , dear , ' mother said gently . ` It is a very natural thing to feel as if things could n't go on just the same when some great blow has changed the world for us . We all feel like that . '
`` Then XXXXX horrid old Cousin Sophia of Susan 's piped up .
Because about after ago at by from of that though