Ollie McGee speaks from beyond the grave, telling the reader to notice a man in the village with downcast eyes and a haggard face. That man is her husband. While she was alive, he abused her through hidden cruelty, stealing her youth and beauty until she became old, ashamed, and broken. Now she is dead.
But her death is not just an escape. It is her revenge. What haunts her husband, she says, is remembering her face as it once was and seeing what he turned it into. His guilt follows him everywhere and draws him toward her grave. The mood is eerie and quietly satisfied: the victim is gone, but she has left her suffering behind in his conscience. It’s a grim kind of justice from the afterlife.