They were walking through the chapel yard after the wedding, and Min went ahead, looking hurried, as though she had left something outside in the road and wanted to look for it. In Polly’s voice she heard the enmity that had been oppressing her all day, enmity that came at her out of the streets of the town as they started to drive out here, distant, incomprehensible enmity that rose up at her from the bridge at Ferrycarrig, and from the road itself, and from the fields and trees and cottages they passed, and even from the sky itself, blue and white and summery though it was. Even the faraway sky looked satisfied to see her in the condition she was in. Min didn’t know what condition she was in. She knew that she couldn’t say a word without being misunderstood. She knew that something had happened that deprived her of an approbation so natural that she had always taken it for granted. She only noticed it now that she missed it — it was as though the whole world had turned against her. Polly must have rehearsed that speech — Polly was very spiteful. But where had Polly found that tone of voice, so hard and condescending? She’s very sure of herself all of a sudden, Min thought. I must have given myself away, somehow. But what was there to give away — Min knew she had done nothing to earn that tone of contempt from a younger sister. She had an awful feeling of being in disgrace with somebody she had never seen and who had never liked her very much, never, not even when she was a little mite trying to help her mother with the younger children. No, wherever it came from, this impersonal dislike had been lying in wait for her all her life. And it was clear from the way people were looking at her that everybody knew about it. She couldn’t even say a word to her mother about a headache without being attacked as though she were a scoundrel. All the good marks she had won at school were forgotten. Nothing was known about her now except that she had presumed to a place far above her station in life. She had believed she could fly sky-high, with her brains for wings. Nobody notices me as I am, Min thought; all they can see is the failure. I was done out of my right, but they’d rather say, She got too big for her boots, and Pride must have a fall. She had to face up to it. There was nothing she could say in her own defense, and she condemned herself if she remained silent. It is impossible to prove you are not a disappointed old maid.