"There is where I stop," replied Miss Flint with emphasis. "I told Horace the very day he brought his wife there that his house would be my home only while I could not have a better one. I have the chance now to have one more to my liking and am going to take it. I will stay here until Mrs. Warfield comes, and then can decide what course to take."
In her own mind she did not believe that Mrs. Warfield would ever come, but she kept her opinion to herself.
"Hilda is no relation of Mrs. Warfield's, I think you said," she remarked after a pause.
"No, she was Mr. Ashley's niece, not Mrs. Ashley's; but Mrs. Warfield will surely take her when she hears that it was her sister's last request."
Miss Flint had another plan in her mind but she said nothing about it to Diana; and that was that as soon as the funeral was over the next afternoon, and Diana gone, she would go immediately about arranging the furniture to suit herself, and then walk to her brother's house in the village and make arrangements with him to have her effects brought to her new abode.
All these plans fell into line at the proper place; the funeral was over, a long train of neighbors following the bier to the Dorton churchyard, but among them not one relative or near friend of the departed.
Diana remained at the cottage until Miss Flint returned; then, being as eager to leave as Jerusha was to have the house to herself, she was not slow in taking the hint that her company could be dispensed with, and left for the village.
In the kindness of her heart she went out of her way to call at the miller's to tell Hilda of the changes in her home.
"Yes, I know," assented the little girl; "she told me she was going to heaven and will see my father and mother and Uncle Ashley."
"You are to go back now, Hilda," said Diana, her eyes filling with tears. "Miss Flint is so kind as to take care of you until Mrs. Warfield comes."
The miller's little girl saw her safely to the cottage gate, and bade her good-bye with a parting kiss.
"What brought you here until I sent for you?" exclaimed Miss Flint angrily, as Hilda stepped in. "I am just going out."
"Diana told me to come," said Hilda, cowering; "she said you were so kind as to take care of me."