noon
Her heart did not cry out for Jack Fyfe , except in a pitying tenderness , as she used to feel for Jack Junior when he bumped and bruised himself . She had felt that before and held it too weak a crutch to lean upon . The nurse came in with a cup of broth for Benton , and Stella went away with a dumb ache in her breast , a leaden sinking of her spirits , and went out to sit on the porch steps . The minutes piled into hours , and noon came , when Linda wakened . Stella forced herself to swallow a cup of tea , to eat food ; then she left Linda sitting with her husband and went back to the porch steps again . As she sat there , a man dressed in the blue shirt and mackinaw trousers and high , calked boots of the logger turned in off the road , a burly woodsman that she recognized as one of Jack Fyfe 's crew . `` Well , '' said he , `` if it ai n't Mrs. Jack .