The morning and the evening were the first day; the comings and goings of the inquisitive and the sympathetic were alike unremarked by Elizabeth. Only for that first hour did her grief run to tears; it was beyond tears. At the coroner's inquest she answered penetrating questions as if they related to the affairs of others, and when at last the weary body, whose spirit had been strong enough to lay it aside, had been buried on the bare hillside, the neighbours and those who came to the funeral from curiosity agreed that Elizabeth Hunter could stand anything. So little evidence of emotion had she given that Mrs. Crane remarked to Mrs. Farnshaw as they rode home together: "I declare, Lizzie's th' coolest hand I ever met. She couldn't 'a' liked Mr. Noland very much. She wasn't near as broke up as Mr. Hunter was, an' when I asked her if she wouldn't feel kind of spooky in that house after such a thing, she just looked at me, funny-like, an' says 'Why?' an' didn't seem t' care a bit." Doctor Morgan drove home from the graveyard with the family. "I suppose you know, Hunter, that there's a will," he said before he helped Elizabeth into the buggy. "No! Who's got it?" John exclaimed. "He gave it to me, with a note asking me not to read it till after he was buried, if he should die." John and Elizabeth followed the doctor's rig home across the long stretch of prairie. "Did you know that Hugh left a will?" John Hunter asked Elizabeth, after driving a long time in silence. "Luther told me last night. I didn't think much about it and I forgot to tell you," Elizabeth returned briefly, and fell back into her own sad thoughts again. John Hunter looked at his wife in surprise. "Luther!" he exclaimed. "Yes," she answered indifferently, not looking up, and unaware that John was regarding her with a surprise which amounted almost to suspicion. John let the subject drop, but as they rode home he had an uncomfortable sense of unpleasant things to come: first of all why had the presence of the will been concealed from him, Hugh Noland's partner and closest friend? secondly, why had Luther Hansen been told? thirdly, why had Elizabeth declined just now to discuss it with him after knowing about it for some time? He could not put his finger on the exact trouble, but John Hunter was affronted. The truth of the matter was that Elizabeth had only heard of the will the night before, and had been too stunned by other things to care much about it. If she had thought about it at all she would have supposed that John had been told also, but Elizabeth had been occupied with troubles quite aside from material things, and now did not talk because she was concerned with certain sad aspects of the past and almost as sad forebodings for the future. "You better come in too, Hansen," Doctor Morgan said to Luther, when they arrived at the Hunter house.