I think he had a face of his own to come down here to see you uninvited , after the way he treated you . '' Lucy Ellen blushed scorchingly and was miserably silent . `` He 's changed terrible in his looks , '' went on Cecily relentlessly . `` How bald he 's got -- and fat ! To think of the spruce Cromwell Biron got to be bald and fat ! To be sure , he still has the same sheepish expression . Will you pass me the currant jell , Lucy Ellen ? '' `` I do n't think he 's so very fat , '' she said resentfully , when Cecily had left the table . `` And I do n't care if he is . '' Twenty years before this , Biron had jilted Lucy Ellen Foster . She was the prettiest girl in Oriental then , but the new school teacher over at the Crossways was prettier , with a dash of piquancy , which Lucy Ellen lacked , into the bargain . Cromwell and the school teacher had run away and been married , and Lucy Ellen was left to pick up the tattered shreds of her poor romance as best she could . She never had another lover . She told herself that she would always be faithful to the one love of her life . This sounded romantic , and she found a certain comfort in it . She had been brought up by her uncle and aunt . When they died she and her cousin , Cecily Foster , found themselves , except for each other , alone in the world . Cecily loved Lucy Ellen as a sister . But she believed that Lucy Ellen would yet marry , and her heart sank at the prospect of being left without a soul to love and care for . It was Lucy Ellen that had first proposed their mutual promise , but Cecily had grasped at it eagerly .
The two women , verging XXXXX decisive old maidenhood , solemnly promised each other that they would never marry , and would always live together .
To after as at before by if of on that