We all feel like that . ' `` Then that horrid old Cousin Sophia of Susan 's piped up . She was sitting there , knitting and croaking like an old ` raven of bode and woe ' as Walter used to call her . '' ` You ai n't as bad off as some , Miss Oliver , ' she said , ` and you should n't take it so hard . There 's some as has lost their husbands ; that 's a hard blow ; and there 's some as has lost their sons . You have n't lost either husband or son . ' '' ` No , ' said Gertrude , more bitterly still . ` It 's true I have n't lost a husband -- I have only lost the man who would have been my husband . I have lost no son -- only the sons and daughters who might have been born to me -- who will never be born to me now . ' '' ` It is n't ladylike to talk like that , ' said Cousin Sophia in a shocked tone ; and then Gertrude laughed right out , so wildly that Cousin Sophia was really frightened . And when poor tortured Gertrude , unable to endure it any longer , hurried out of the room , Cousin Sophia asked mother if the blow had n't affected Miss Oliver 's mind . '' ' I suffered the loss of two good kind partners , ' she said , ` but it did not affect me like that . ' `` I should think it would n't ! Those poor men must have been thankful to die . `` I heard Gertrude walking up and down her room most of the night . She walked like that every night . But never so long as that night . And once I heard her give a dreadful sudden little cry as if she had been stabbed . I could n't sleep for suffering with her ; and I could n't help her . I thought the night would never end .
But it did ; and then ` joy came in the morning ' XXXXX the Bible says .
Gertrude Oliver Sophia as like night of right that to