There was no lack of words at his own funeral, words spoken with impressive earnestness and warmth, and it was a tribute to the wide regard in which Ruel Saxon was held that not only the minister of his own church, but others from towns around, begged the privilege of a part in the service.
"He would have liked it if he had been there; it was a funeral after his own heart," Stella said, talking it over that evening with Esther. She drew a long soft sigh, and added, "I declare I can't realize yet that it was actually grandfather himself. He was trying sometimes, but never tiresome; and life will lose part of its spice here at home, with him gone out of it."
Esther did not reply. Somehow she could not talk about things which were close to her heart in the cool way Stella could. After a little silence the latter said: "You'll go to Boston with me, of course, when I go back. I shall stay at home long enough to get things settled for mother, and there'll be no need of either of us staying after that."
"Stella," said Esther, speaking very quietly, "I suppose you'll think it's strange, but I've decided not to go to Boston." The other started, and she went on hurriedly, "I should like to be with _you_, and I know there'd be a great deal to enjoy, but grandfather's dying has changed everything for the present, and honestly, there's nothing I want now so much as to be at home."
For a minute Stella seemed too much surprised to speak. Then she said, with a peculiar look at her cousin, "There's somebody besides me who'll be dreadfully disappointed if you don't come."
Esther returned the look without flinching, though her color rose a little. "If you mean Mr. Hadley," she said, "I should be very sorry to think he'd care much, and truly I don't think he would; at least not after the very first. I shall write to him. I must; for he sent such kind messages to grandfather, and he'd want to know how it all was at the last. I think he'll understand how I feel. I can't quite explain it, but it's home and the home people I want. There's nothing here now that I care for as I care for them."
Stella's eyes were on the floor, and she did not raise them as she said, after a long pause, "I don't quite make you out, Esther, but you are an awfully nice girl. I wish it wasn't so far between here and Indiana."