midday
twilight
Ruin could not hurt Jim now , and she ? -- she might even find distraction in it , -- find relief . She went down into the dimly lighted shop , where the shades were closely drawn in the door and in the broad show-window . In that strange midday twilight , she gathered up her mail , and then she seated herself in her old place behind the counter , and began the examination of it . There were all the bills , just as she had anticipated ; bills for food and bills for medicine ; bills for all those useless odds and ends which made up her stock in trade , which she and Jim had been so proud of a few years ago when they first came to Springtown . She wrote out the various sums in a long column , just to look at them all together , and to feel how little harm they could do her ; and in the midst of the dull , lifeless work , she came upon a letter which did not look like a bill . As she drew it from the envelope , two slips of paper fell out of it , two slips of paper which she picked up and read , with but a dazed , bewildered attention .