It followed in Charlotte’s reasoning that it must be a man in Banbridge.  There had been no talk of their leaving the place.  Of course she knew that their stay in one locality was usually short, but here they were now, and it must be a man in Banbridge.  She thought of a number of the crudely harmless young men of the village; there were one or two not so crude, but not so harmless, who held her thoughts a little longer, but she decided that she did not want any of them, even if they should want her.  Then again the face of Randolph Anderson flashed out before her eyes as it had done before.  Charlotte, with her inborn convictions, laughed at herself, but the face remained.

“There isn’t another man in this town to compare with him,” she said to herself, “and he is a gentleman, too.”  Then she fell to remembering every word he had ever said to her, and all the expressions his face had ever taken on with regard to her, and she found that she could recall them all.  Then she reflected how he had trusted them, and had never failed to fill their orders, when all the other tradesmen in Banbridge had refused, and that they must be owing him.

“I shouldn’t wonder if we were owing him nearly twenty-five dollars,” Charlotte said to herself, and for the first time a thrill of shame and remorse at the consideration of debt was over her.  She had heard his story.  “There he had to give up his law practice because he could not make a living, and go into the grocery business, and here we are taking his goods and not paying him,” thought she.  “It is too bad.”  A feeling of indignation at herself and her family, and of pity for Anderson came over her.  She made up her mind that she would ask her father for money to pay that bill at least.  “The butcher can wait, and so can all the others,” she thought, “but Mr. Anderson ought to be paid.”  Besides the pity came a faint realization of the other side of the creditor’s point of view.  “Mr. Anderson must look down upon us for taking his property and not paying our bills,” she thought.  She knew that some of the wedding bills had been paid, and that led her to think that her father might have more money than usual, but she overheard some conversation which passed between Carroll and his sister on the morning when he gave her the check.

“Now about that?” Anna had asked, evidently referring to some bill.

“I tell you I can’t, Anna,” Carroll replied.  “I used the money as it came on those bills for the wedding.  There is very little left.”  Then he had hurriedly scrawled the check, which she took in spite of her incredulousness of its worth.  Therefore Charlotte, when the check had been offered her for a new hat, for Anna had carelessly passed it over to her sister-in-law, had eagerly taken it to pay Anderson.

“I paid the grocery bill,” Charlotte told her aunt when she returned.

Anna was in her own room, engaged in an unusual task.  She was setting things to rights, and hanging her clothes regularly in her closet, and packing her bureau drawers.  Charlotte looked at her in astonishment after she had made the statement concerning the grocery bill.