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Further Chronicles of Avonlea - A Dramatic Reading · Further Chronicles of Avonlea - A Dramatic Reading

• 0:00
  Max always blesses the animal when it is referred to, and I don't deny
• 0:04
  that things have worked together for good after all. But when I think of
• 0:07
  the anguish of mind which Ismay and I underwent on account of that abominable cat,
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  it is not a blessing that arises uppermost in my thoughts. I never
• 0:15
  was fond of cats, although I admit they are well enough in their place,
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  and I can worry along comfortably with a nice, matronly old tabby who
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  can take care of herself and be of some use in the world. As
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  for Ismae, she hates cats and always did. But Aunt Cynthia, who
• 0:29
  adored them, could never bring herself to understand that any one could possibly dislike
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  them. She firmly believed that Ismay and I really liked cats deep down in
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  our hearts, but that, owing to some perverse twist in our moral natures,
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  we would not own up to it. But wilfully persisted in declaring we
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  didn't of all cats. I loathed that white Persian cat of Aunt Cynthia's,
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  and indeed, as we always suspected and finally proved, Aunt herself looked upon
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  the creature with more pride than affection. She would have taken ten times the
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  comfort in a good common puss than she did in that spoiled beauty. But
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  a Persian cat with a recorded pedigree and a market value of one hundred dollars
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  tickled Aunt Cynthia's pride of possession to such an extent that she deluded herself into
• 1:10
  believing that the animal was really the apple of her eye. It had been
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  presented to her when a kitten by a missionary nephew who had brought it all
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  the way home from Persia, and for the next three years Aunt Cynthia's household
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  existed to wait on that cat hand and foot. It was snow white with
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  a bluish gray spot at the tip of its tail, and it was blue
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  eyed and deaf and delicate. Aunt Cynthia was always worrying lest it should take
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  cold and die. Ismay and I used to wish that it would. We
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  were so tired of hearing about it and its whims, but we did not
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  say so to Aunt Cynthia. She would probably have never spoken to us again.
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  And there was no wisdom in offending Aunt Cynthia when you have an unencumbered
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  aunt with a fat bank account. It's just as well to keep on good
• 1:49
  terms with her if you can. Besides, we really liked Aunt Cynthia very
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  much at times. Aunt Cynthia was one of those rather exasperating people who naget
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  you and find fault with you until you think you are justified in hating them,
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  and who then turn round and do something so really nice and kind for
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  you that you feel as if you were compelled to love them dutifully instead.
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  So we listened meekly when she discoursed on Fatima. The cat's name was Fatima,
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  and if it was wicked of us to wish for the latters to cease,
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  we were well punished for it. Later on, one day in November,
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  Aunt Cynthia came sailing out to Spencervale. She really came in a phaeton
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  drawn by a fat gray pony, but somehow Aunt Cynthia always gave you the
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  impression of a full rigged ship coming gallantly on before a favorable wind. That
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  was a Jonah day for all of us. Though everything had gone wrong.
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  Ismay had spilled grease on her velvet coat, and the fit of the new
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  blouse I was making was hopelessly askew, and the kitchen stove smoked, and
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  the bread was sour. Moreover, Haulda Jane Keeson, our tried and trusted
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  old family nurse and cook and general boss, had what she called the reality
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  in her shoulder. And although Haulda Jane is as good an old creature as
• 2:53
  ever lived, when she has the reality, other people who are in the
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  house want to get out of it. And if they can't, feel about
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  as comfortable as Saint Lawrence on his gridiron. And on top of this came
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  Aunt Cynthia's call and request. Dear me, said Aunt Cynthia, sniffing,
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  don't I smell smoke? You girls must manage your range very badly. Mine
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  never smokes. But it is no more than one night. Expect when true
• 3:19
  girls try to keep house without a man about the place. We get along
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  very well without a man about the place, I said loftily. Max hadn't
• 3:27
  been in for four holidays, and although nobody wanted to see him, particularly,
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  I couldn't help wondering why men are nuisances. I dare say you would
• 3:36
  pretend to think so, said Aunt Cynthia aggravatingly. But no woman ever does
• 3:40
  really think so. You know, I imagine that pretty Anne Shirley, who
• 3:45
  is visiting Ella Kimball, doesn't. I saw her and Doctor Irving out walking
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  this afternoon, looking very well satisfied with themselves. If you dilly Dali much
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  longer, Sue, you will let Max slip through your fingers. Yet that
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  was a tat to say to me, who had refused Max Irving so often
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  that I had lost count. I was furious, and so I smiled most
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  sweetly on my maddening aunt. Dear Aunt, How amusing of you? I
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  said, smoothly. You talk as if I wanted Max, So you do,
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  said Aunt Cynthia. If so, why should I have refused him time
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  and again, I asked, smilingly. Right, well, Aunt Cynthia knew
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  I had Max always told her. Goodness alone knows why, said Aunt Cynthia.
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  But you may do it once too often and find yourself taken at your
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  word. There is something very fascinating about this Anne Shirley. Indeed there is,
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  I assented. She has the loveliest eyes I ever saw. She would
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  be just the wife for Max, and I hope he will marry her.
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  Humph, said Aunt Cynthia. Well, I won't entice you into telling any
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  more. Fibbs, and I didn't drive out here today in all this wind
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  to talk sense into you concerning Max. I'm going to Halifax for two months,
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  and I want you to take charge of Fatima for me while I am
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  aware. Fatima, I exclaimed, Yes, I don't dare to trust her
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  with the servants. Mind. You always warm her milk before you give it
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  to her, and don't on any account let her run out of doors.
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  I looked at Ismay, and Ismay looked at me. We knew we were
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  in for it. To refuse would mortally offend Aunt Cynthia. Besides, if
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  I betrayed any unwillingness, Aunt Cynthia would be sure to put it down to
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  grumpiness over what she had said about Max and rub it in for years.
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  But I ventured to ask, what if anything happens to her while you are
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  away? It is to prevent that I'm leaving her with you, said Aunt
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  Cynthia. You simply must not let anything happen to her. It will do
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  you good to have a little responsibility, and you will have a chance to
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  find out what an adorable creature Fatima really is. Well, that is all
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  settled, I'll send Fatima out tomorrow you could take care of that horrid fatima
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  beast yourself, said Ismay. When the door closed behind Aunt Cynthia, I
• 5:57
  will hut you with eight yardstick. You had no business to say we'd take
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  her. Did I say we would take her? I demanded crossly. Aunt
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  Cynthia took our consent for granted, And as you know as well as I
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  do, we couldn't have refused. So what is the use of being grouchy?
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  If anything happens to her, Aunt Cynthia will hold us responsible, said
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  Ismay darkly. Do you think Anne Shirley is really engaged to Gilbert blythe I
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  asked curiously, I've heard that she was, said Ismay absently. Does she
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  eat anything but milk? Will it do to give her mice? Oh?
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  I guess so. But do you think Max has really fallen in love with
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  her? I dare say what a relief it will be for you if he
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  has? Oh? Of course, I said frostily. Anne Shirley or Anne
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  anybody else is perfectly welcome to Max if she wants him. I certainly did
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  not, is may mead? If that stove doesn't stop smoking, I shall
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  fly into bits. This is a detestable day. I hate that creature.
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  Oh, you shouldn't talk like that. You don't even know her, protested
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  Ismay. Everyone says Anne Shirley is a lovely I was talking about Fatima.
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  I cried in a rage, Oh, said Ismay. Ismay is stupid.
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  At times, I thought the way she said Oh was inexcusably stupid. Fatima
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  arrived the next day. Max brought her out in a covered basket lined with
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  padded Crimson satin. Max likes cats and aunt Cynthia. He explained how we
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  were to treat Fatima, and when Ismay had gone out of the room.
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  Ismay always went out of the room when she knew I particularly wanted her to
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  remain. He proposed to me again. Of course I said no, as
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  usual, but I was rather pleased. Max has been proposing to me about
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  every two months for two years. Sometimes, as in this case, he
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  went three months and then I always wondered why. I concluded that he could
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  not really be interested in Anne Shirley, and I was relieved. I didn't
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  want to marry Max, but it was pleasant and convenient to have him around,
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  and we would miss him dreadfully if any other girl snapped him. Up.
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  He was so useful and always willing to do anything for us, nail
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  a shingle on the roof, drive us to town, put down carpets.
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  In short, a very present help in all our troubles. So I just
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  beamed on him when I said no, Max began counting on his fingers.
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  When he got as far as eight, he shook his head and began over
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  again. What is it, I asked, I'm trying to count up how
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  many times I have proposed to you, he said, but I can't remember
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  whether I ask you to marry me that day that we dug up the garden
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  or not. If I did, it makes no you didn't, I interrupted,
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  Well, that makes it a leavin, said Max reflectively. Pretty near
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  the limit, isn't it. My manly pride would not allow me to propose
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  her the same girl more than twelve times, So the next time will be
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  the last. Sue darling, oh, I said, a trifle flatly.
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  I forgot to resent his calling me darling. I wondered if things wouldn't be
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  rather dull when Max gave up proposing to me. It was the only excitement
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  I had. But of course it would be best, and he couldn't go
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  onant it forever. So, by the way of gracefully dismissing the subject,
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  I asked him what miss Shirley was like. Very sweet girl, said Max.
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  You know I always admired those grade eyed girls with that explendid Titian hair.
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  I'm dark with brown eyes. Just then I detested Max. I got
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  up and said I was going to get some milk for Fatima. I found
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  Ismay in a rage in the kitchen. She had been up in the garret
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  and a mouse had run across her foot. Mice always get on Ismay's nerves.
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  We need a cat badly enough, she fumed, But not a useless,
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  pampered thing like Fatima. The garret is literally swarming with mice. You'll
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  not catch me going up there again. Fatima did not prove such a nuisance
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  as we had feared. Aulda Jane liked her, and Ismay, in spite
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  of her declaration that she would have nothing to do with her, looked after
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  her comfort scrupulously. She even used to get up in the middle of the
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  night and go out to see if Fatima was warm. Max came in every
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  day and being around gave us good advice. Then one day, about three
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  weeks after Aunt Cynthia's departure, Fatima disappeared, just simply disappeared, as if
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  she had been dissolved into thin air. We left her one afternoon, curled
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  up asleep in her basket by the fire under Hulda Jane's eye while we went
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  out to make a call. When we came home, Fatima was gone.
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  Holda Jane wept and was as one whom the gods have made mad. She
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  vowed that she had never let Fatima out of her sight the whole time,
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  save once for three minutes when she ran up to the garret for some summer
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  savory. When she came back, the kitchen door had blown open and Fatima
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  had vanished. Ismay and I were frantic. We ran about the garden and
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  through the outhouses and the woods behind the house like wild creatures, calling Fatima
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  but in vain. Then Ismay sat down on the front doorsteps and cried,
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  she's got out, and she'll catch your death of cold, and that Cynthia
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  will never forgive us. I'm going for Max, I declared. So I
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  did, through the spruce woods and over the field as fast as my feet
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  could carry me, thanking my stars that there was a Max to go to
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  in such a predicament. Max came over and we had another search, but
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  without result. Days passed but we did not find Fatima. I would certainly
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  have gone crazy had it not been for Max. He was worth his weight
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  in gold. During the awful week that followed. We did not dare advertise
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  lest Aunt Cynthia should see it, but we inquired far and wide for a
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  white Persian cat with a blue spot on its tail, and offered a reward
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  for it. But nobody had seen it, although people kept coming to the
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  house night and day with every kind of a cat in baskets, wanting to
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  know if it was the one we had lost. We shall never see Fatima
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  again, I said hopelessly to Max and Ismay. One afternoon. I had
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  just turned away an old woman with a big yellow tommy, which she insisted
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  must be ours as it came to our place. M'am are you owling?
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  Fearful? Ma'am? And I don't belong to nobody, not down Grafton waym'am.
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  I am afraid you won't, said Max. She must have perished from
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  exposure long or it is Aunt Cynthia. We'll never forgive us, said Ismay
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  dismally. I had a presentiment of trouble the moment that cat came into this
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  house. We had never heard of this presentiment before, but Ismay is good
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  at having presentiments after things happen. What shall we do? I demanded helplessly.
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  Max, can't you find some way out of this scrape for us?
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  Advertise in the Charlertown papers for a white Persian cat, suggested Max. Someone
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  may have one for sale. If so, you must buy it and pum
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  it off on your good aunt as Fatima. He's very short sighted, so
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  we'll be quite possible. But Fatima has a blue spot on her tail.
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  I said. You must advertise for a cat with a blue spot in its
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  tail, said Max. It will cost a pretty penny, said Ismay dolefully.
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  Fatima was valued at one hundred dollars. We must take the money that
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  we have been saving for our new furs, I said sorrowfully. There is
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  no other way out of it. It will cost us a good deal more
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  if we lose Aunt Cynthia's favor. She is quite capable of believing that we
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  have made away with Fatima deliberately, and with malice a forethought. So we
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  advertised. Max went to town and had the notice inserted in the most important
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  daily. We asked anyone who had a white persian cat with a blue spot
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  at the tip of its tail to dispose of to communicate with m I care
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  of the enterprise. We really did not have much hope that anything would come
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  of it, so we were surprised and delighted over the letter Max brought home
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  from town four days later. It was a typewritten screed from Halifax, stating
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  that the writer had for sale a white Persian cat answering to our description.
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  The price was one hundred and ten dollars, and if M I cared to
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  go to Halifax and inspect the animal, it would be found at one hundred
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  and ten Hollis Street by inquiring for persian temper your joy, my friends,
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  said ismay, gloomily. The cat may not suit. The blue spot may
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  be too big or too small, or not in the right place. I
• 13:41
  consistently refused to believe that any good thing can come out of this deplorable fair.
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  Just at this moment there was a knock at the door, and I
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  hurried out. The postmaster's boy was there with a telegram. I tore it
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  open, glanced at it, and dashed back into the room. What is
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  it now, cried Ismay, beholding my face, I held out the telegram.
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  It was from Aunt Cynthia. She had wired us to send Fatima to
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  Halifax by express immediately. For the first time, max did not seem ready
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  to rush into the breach with a suggestion. It was I who spoke first.
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  Max I said, imploringly, you'll see us through this, won't you.
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  Neither Isma nor I can rush off to Halifax at once. You must
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  go tomorrow morning, go right to one hundred and ten Hollis Street and ask
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  for Persian. If the cat looks enough like Fatima, buy it and take
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  it to Aunt Cynthia. If it doesn't, Oh, but it must,
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  you'll go, won't you? That depends, said Max. I stared at
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  him. This was so unlike Max, You're sending me on a nasty errand
• 14:43
  he said coolly. How do I know that Aunt Cynthia would be deceived?
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  After all, even if she be sure it's sighted, buying a cat in
• 14:50
  a joke is a huge risk, and if she should see through the skein,
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  I shall be in a pretty mass, oh, max I said.
• 15:00
  On the verge of tears. Of course, said Max, looking meditatively into
• 15:03
  the fire. If I were really one of the family, or had any
• 15:07
  reasonable prospect of being so, I would not mind so much. It would
• 15:11
  be all in the day's work then, But as it is is, make
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  got up and went out of the room. Oh Max, please, I
• 15:20
  said, Will you marry me? Sue demanded Max sternly. If you will
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  agree, I'll go to Halifax and bury the lion in its then, unflinchingly.
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  If that's as sari, I'll take a black street, catch you on
• 15:33
  Cynthia and swear that it is Fatima. I'll get you out of the scrape
• 15:37
  if I have to prove that you never had Fatima, and that she's safe
• 15:41
  in your prossession at a present time, and that there never was such an
• 15:45
  animal as Fatima. Anyhow, I'll do anything, say anything, but it
• 15:48
  must be for my future wife. Will nothing else content you? I said,
• 15:54
  helplessly, nothing, I thought hard. Of course Max was acting abominably,
• 15:58
  but but he really was a dear fellow. And this was the twelfth
• 16:03
  time, and there was Anne Shirley. I knew in my secret soul that
• 16:07
  life would be dreadfully dismal if Max were not around somewhere. Besides, I
• 16:11
  would have married him long ago, had not Aunt Cynthia thrown us so pointedly
• 16:15
  at each other's heads ever since? He came to Spencervale very well, I
• 16:18
  said crossly. Max left for Halifax in the morning. Next day we got
• 16:22
  a wire saying it was all right. The evening of the following day he
• 16:26
  was back in Spencervale. Is man. I put him in a chair and
• 16:29
  glared at him impatiently. Max began to laugh and laughed until he turned blue.
• 16:34
  I'm glad it's so amusing, said Ismay severely. If Sue and I
• 16:40
  could see the joke, it might be more so. Dear little girls,
• 16:44
  have patience with me, implored Max. If he nobody cost me to keep
• 16:48
  a straight face in Halifax, you would forgive me for breaking out. Now
• 16:52
  we forgive you, But for pity's sake, tell us all about it.
• 16:56
  I cried well. As soon as I arrived at Halifax, I hurried to
• 17:00
  one hundred and ten Holly Street. But see here, can you tell me
• 17:04
  that your aunt adress was ten Pleasant Street? So it is it Isn't you
• 17:11
  look at the address from a telegram next time you get one. She went
• 17:15
  a week ago to visit another friend who lives at one hundred and ten Hollis
• 17:19
  Max. It's a fact. I rang the bell and was just going to
• 17:23
  ask the maid for Persian when your aunt Cynthia or herself came through the hall
• 17:29
  and pounced on me. Max. She said, have you brought Fatima?
• 17:33
  No, I answered, trying to adjust my weds to this new development.
• 17:37
  I should told me into the library. No, I just came to Halifax
• 17:42
  and the little matter of business, dear me said on Cnthia crossly. I
• 17:48
  don't know what those girls mean. I wired them to send Fatima at once,
• 17:52
  and she has not come yet. And I am expecting a call every
• 17:56
  minute from someone who wants to buy her. Oh, I murmured, mining
• 18:00
  deeper every minute. Yes, we're on your aunt. There is an advertisement
• 18:06
  in the Charlottetown Enterprise for a Persian cat, and I answered it. Fatima
• 18:11
  is really quite a child, you know, and so apt to die and
• 18:15
  be a dead loss. Did your aunt mean a pond? Girls? And
• 18:18
  so, although I am considerably attached to her, I have decided to part
• 18:22
  with her. By this time I had got my second wind, and I
• 18:26
  promptly decided that a judicious mixture of the truth was the thing required. Well
• 18:32
  of all the curious coincidences, I exclaimed, why, Miss hea Ley,
• 18:37
  it was I who advertised for Persian cat on Sue's behalf. She and Newsmay
• 18:42
  have decided that they won a cat like Fatima for themselves. You should have
• 18:48
  seen how she beamed. She said, she knew you always really liked cats,
• 18:52
  only you would never own up to it. She cleaned the dicker then
• 18:57
  and there and passed her over your one hundred and ten dollars. She took
• 19:02
  the money without turning her hair, and now you are the joint owners of
• 19:06
  Fatima. Good luck on your bargain. Me no thing sniffed his may She
• 19:11
  meant, Aunt Cynthia, and remembering our shabby furs. I didn't disagree with
• 19:15
  her. But there is no Fatima, I said, dubiously. How shall
• 19:18
  we account for her when Aunt Cynthia comes home? Well, your aunt isn't
• 19:22
  coming home for a month. Yet, when she comes, you will have
• 19:26
  it to tell her that a cat it's lost, But you needn't say when
• 19:30
  it happened. As for the rest, Fatima is your property now, so
• 19:34
  Aunt Cynthia can't grumble, but she will have a poorer opinion then, Never
• 19:40
  over your fitness. She'll run a house alone. When Max left, I
• 19:44
  went to the window to watch him down the path. He really was a
• 19:47
  handsome fellow, and I was proud of him. At the gate, he
• 19:48
  turned to wave me goodbye, and as he did he glanced upward. Even
• 19:52
  at that distance, I saw the look of amazement on his face. Then
• 19:56
  he came bolting back. Is May, the house is on fire, I
• 20:00
  shrieked. As I flew to the door, So cried Max. I saw
• 20:03
  Fatima or her ghost at the garret window a moment ago. Nonsense, I
• 20:08
  cried. But Ismay was already half way up the stairs, and we followed
• 20:12
  straight to the garret. We rushed. There sat Fatima, sleek and complacent,
• 20:17
  sunning herself in the window. Max laughed until the rafters rang. She
• 20:22
  can't have been up here all this time, I protested, half tearfully.
• 20:26
  We would have heard her me owing by you deadn't, said Max. She
• 20:30
  would have died of the cold, declared Ismay. But she hasn't, said
• 20:36
  Max. Or starved, I cried. The place is alive with mice,
• 20:41
  said Max. No, girls, there's no doubt the cat has been there
• 20:45
  the whole fourth thing. She must have followed Hulda Jane out there unobserved that
• 20:49
  day. It's a monder who didn't hear her crying. If she did cry,
• 20:55
  but perhaps she didn't. And of course you sleep downstairs. Think I
• 21:00
  never thought of looking here for her. It has cost us over one hundred
• 21:03
  dollars, said Ismay, with a malevolent glance at the sleep Fatima. It
• 21:08
  has cost me more than that, I said, as I turned to the
• 21:11
  stairway. Max held me back for an instant while Ismay and Fatima patted down.
• 21:15
  Do you think it has cost too much too? He whispered. I
• 21:19
  looked at him sideways. He was really a dear niceness fairly exhaled from him.
• 21:25
  No, I said, but when we are married, you will have
• 21:27
  to take care of Fatima. I won't, dear Fatima, said Max gratefully.
• 21:34
  End of story one. It had never worried me in the least that
• 21:38
  I wasn't married, although everybody in Avonlea pitied old maids. But it did
• 21:42
  worry me, and I frankly confess it that I had never had a chance
• 21:45
  to be even Nancy, my old nurse, and servant knew that and pitied
• 21:49
  me for it. Nancy is an old maid herself, but she has had
• 21:53
  two proposals. She did not accept either of them because one was a widower
• 21:57
  with seven children and the other a very shiftless, good for nothing fellow.
• 22:02
  But if anybody twitted Nancy on her single condition, she could point triumphantly to
• 22:06
  those two as evidence that she could, and she would. If I had
• 22:10
  not lived all my life in Avonlea, I might have had the benefit of
• 22:11
  the doubt. But I had, and everybody knew everything about me, or
• 22:17
  thought they did. I had really often wondered why nobody had ever fallen in
• 22:21
  love with me. I was not at all homely. Indeed, years ago,
• 22:23
  George ad an Iron Maybrick had written a poem addressed to me, in
• 22:26
  which he praised my beauty quite extravagantly. That didn't mean anything, because George
• 22:32
  at an Iron wrote poetry to all the good looking girls and never went with
• 22:34
  anybody but Flora King, who was cross eyed and red haired. But it
• 22:37
  proves that it was not my appearance that put me out of the running.
• 22:41
  Neither was it the fact that I wrote poetry myself, although not of George
• 22:44
  at an iron's kind, because nobody ever knew that. When I felt it
• 22:48
  coming on, I shut myself up in my room and wrote it out in
• 22:51
  a little blank book that I kept locked up. It is nearly full now
• 22:53
  because I have been writing poetry all my life. It is the only thing
• 22:56
  I have ever been able to keep a secret from Nancy. Nancy, in
• 23:00
  any case, has not a very high opinion of my ability to take care
• 23:03
  of myself. But I tremble to imagine what she would think if she ever
• 23:07
  found out about that little book. I am convinced she would send for the
• 23:10
  doctor post haste and insist on mustard plasters while waiting for him. Nevertheless,
• 23:15
  I kept on at it, and what with my flowers and my cats,
• 23:18
  and my magazines and my little book, I was really very happy and contented.
• 23:22
  But it did sting that Adela Gilbert across the road, who has a
• 23:25
  drunken husband, should pity poor Charlotte, because nobody had ever wanted her Poor
• 23:30
  Charlotte. Indeed, if I had thrown myself at a man's head the way
• 23:33
  Adela Gilbert did at But there there I must refrain from such thoughts. I
• 23:37
  must not be uncharitable the Sewing Circle met at Mary Gillespie's on my fortieth birthday.
• 23:42
  I have given up talking about my birthdays, although that little scheme is
• 23:45
  not much good in Avonlea, when everybody knows your age, or if they
• 23:48
  make a mistake, it is never on the side of youth. But Nancy,
• 23:52
  who grew accustomed to celebrating my birthdays when I was a little girl,
• 23:56
  never gets over the habit, and I don't try to cure her, because,
• 23:59
  after all, it's nice to have some one make a fuss over you.
• 24:02
  She brought me up my breakfast before I got out of bed, a
• 24:03
  concession to my laziness that Nancy would scorn to make on any other day of
• 24:07
  the year. She had cooked everything I liked best, and had decorated the
• 24:11
  tray with roses from the garden and ferns from the woods behind the house.
• 24:15
  I enjoyed every bit of that breakfast, and then I got up and dressed,
• 24:18
  putting on my second best muslin gown. I would have put on my
• 24:22
  really best if I had not had the fear of Nancy before my eyes,
• 24:25
  but I knew she would never condone that. Even on a birthday. I
• 24:27
  watered my flowers and fed my cats, and then I locked myself up and
• 24:30
  wrote a poem. On June, I had given up writing. Birthday odes
• 24:34
  after I was thirty. In the afternoon, I went to the sewing circle.
• 24:37
  When I was ready for it, I looked in my glass and wondered
• 24:41
  if I could really be forty. I was quite sure I didn't look it.
• 24:44
  My hair was brown and wavy, my cheeks were pink, and the
• 24:47
  lines could hardly be seen at all, though possibly that was because of the
• 24:49
  dim light. I always have my mirror hung in the darkest corner of my
• 24:53
  room. Nancy cannot imagine why. I know the lions are there, of
• 24:56
  course, but when they don't show very plain, I forget that they there.
• 25:00
  We had a large sewing circle, young and olderlike attending. I really
• 25:03
  cannot say I ever enjoyed the meetings, at least not up to that time,
• 25:07
  although I went religiously because I thought it might duty to go. The
• 25:11
  married women talked so much of their husbands and children, and of course I
• 25:14
  had to be quiet on those topics. And the young girls talked in corner
• 25:18
  groups about their bows and stopped it when I joined them, as if they
• 25:21
  felt sure that an old maid who has never had a bow couldn't understand at
• 25:23
  all. As for the other old maids, they talked gossip about everyone,
• 25:26
  and I do not like that either. I knew the minute my back was
• 25:30
  turned they would fasten on to me and hint that I used hair dye and
• 25:33
  declare it was perfectly ridiculous for a woman of fifty to wear a pink muslin
• 25:37
  dress with lace trimmed frills. There was a full attendance that day, for
• 25:41
  we were getting ready for a sale of fancy work and ate of passnage repairs.
• 25:44
  The young girls were merrier and noisier than usual. Wilhelmina mercer was there.
• 25:48
  She kept them going. The mercers were quite new to Avonlea, having
• 25:52
  come here only two months previously. I was sitting by the window and Wilhelmina
• 25:56
  Mercer, Maggie Henderson, Sizette Cross, and Georgie Hall were in little grips
• 26:00
  just before me. I wasn't listening to their chatter at all, but presently
• 26:03
  Georgie exclaimed teasingly, Miss Charlotte is laughing at us. I suppose she thinks
• 26:08
  we are awfully silly to be talking about bows. The truth was that I
• 26:14
  was simply smiling over some very pretty thoughts that had come to me about the
• 26:17
  roses which were climbing over Mary Gillespie's silk. I meant to inscribe them in
• 26:21
  a little blank book when I went home. Georgie's speech brought me back to
• 26:23
  harsh realities with a jolt. It hurt me, as such speeches always did.
• 26:29
  Didn't you ever have a bowm as Holmes said Wilhelmina laughingly, just as
• 26:33
  it happened, as silence had fallen over the room for a moment and everybody
• 26:37
  in it heard Wilhelmina's question. I really did not know what got into me
• 26:41
  and possessed me. I have never been able to account for what I said
• 26:45
  and did, because I am naturally a truthful person and hate all de seat.
• 26:48
  It seemed to me that I could not simply say no to Wilhelmina before
• 26:51
  that whole room full of women. It was too humiliating. I suppose all
• 26:56
  the prickles and stings and slurs I had endured for fifteen years on account of
• 27:00
  never having had a lover, had what the new doctor calls a cumulative effect
• 27:03
  and came to a head then and there. Yes, I had one once,
• 27:07
  my dear, I said, calmly, for once in my life,
• 27:10
  I made a sensation. Every woman in that room stopped sewing and stared at
• 27:15
  me. Most of them, I saw didn't believe me, but Wilhelmina did.
• 27:18
  Her pretty face lighted up with interest. Oh won't you tell us about
• 27:22
  him, miss Holmes, she coaxed, And why didn't you marry him?
• 27:26
  That is right, miss Mercer, said Josephine Cameron, with a nasty little
• 27:32
  laugh. Mecca, tell we're all interested. It's news to us that Charles
• 27:37
  ever had a bow. If Josephine had not said that, I might not
• 27:41
  have gone on. But she did say it. And moreover, I caught
• 27:42
  Mary Gillespie and Adela Gilbert exchanging significant smiles. That settled it and made me
• 27:48
  quite reckless. In for a penny, in for a pound, thought I,
• 27:52
  and I said, with a pensive smile. Nobody here knew anything about
• 27:55
  him, and it was all long, long ago. What was his name?
• 27:59
  Asked Cecil Fenwick, I answered promptly. Cecil had always been my favorite
• 28:03
  name for a man. It figured quite frequently in the blank book. As
• 28:07
  for the Fenwick part, of it. I had a bit of newspaper in
• 28:10
  my hand, measuring a hem with try Fenwick's porous plasters printed across it,
• 28:15
  and I simply joined the two in sudden and irrevocable matrimony. Where did you
• 28:18
  meet him, asked Georgie. I hastily reviewed my past. There was only
• 28:22
  one place to locate, Cecil Fenwick. The only time I had ever been
• 28:26
  far enough away from Avonlea in my life was when I was eighteen and had
• 28:30
  gone to visit an aunt in New Brunswick. In Blakely, New Brunswick,
• 28:33
  I said, almost believing that I had when I saw how they all took
• 28:37
  it in unsuspectingly. I was just eighteen and he was twenty three. What
• 28:41
  did he look like, Sizette wanted to know. Oh, he was very
• 28:44
  handsome. I proceeded glibly to sketch my ideal, to tell the dreadful truth
• 28:48
  I was enjoying myself. I could see respect dawning in those girl's eyes,
• 28:52
  and I knew that I had forever thrown off my reproach. Henceforth I should
• 28:56
  be a woman with a romantic past, faithful to the one love of her
• 29:00
  life. A very, very different thing from an old maid who had never
• 29:03
  had a lover. He was tall and dark, with lovely, curly black
• 29:07
  hair and brilliant, piercing eyes. He had a splendid chin and a fine
• 29:11
  nose and the most fascinating smile. What was he, asked Maggie, A
• 29:15
  young lawyer, I said, my choice of profession decided by an enlarged crayon
• 29:21
  portrait of Mary Gillespie's deceased brother on an easel before me. He had been
• 29:23
  a lawyer. Why didn't you marry him? Demanded Suzette. We quarreled,
• 29:29
  I answered, sadly, a terribly bitter quarrel. Oh we were both so
• 29:33
  young and so foolish. It was my fault. I vexed Cecil by flirting
• 29:37
  with another man. Wasn't I coming on? And he was jealous and angry.
• 29:41
  He went out west and never came back. I have never seen him
• 29:44
  since, and I did not even know if he is still alive. But
• 29:48
  but I could never care for any other man. Oh how interesting, sighed
• 29:52
  Wilhelmina. I do so love sad love stories. But perhaps he will come
• 29:57
  back some day, Miss Holmes. Oh no, never now, I said,
• 30:03
  shaking my head. He has forgotten all about me, I dare say,
• 30:06
  or if he hasn't, he has never forgiven me. Mary Gillespie,
• 30:10
  Susan Jane announced tea at this moment, and I was thankful for my imagination
• 30:14
  was giving out, and I didn't know what question these girls would ask next,
• 30:17
  but I felt already a change in the mental atmosphere surrounding me, and
• 30:21
  all through supper I was thrilled with a secret exultation, repentant, ashamed,
• 30:25
  not a bit of it. I'd have done the same thing over again,
• 30:27
  and all I felt sorry for was that I hadn't done it long ago.
• 30:32
  When I got home that night, Nancy looked at me wonderingly and said,
• 30:34
  you look like a girl to night, Miss Charlotte. I feel like one,
• 30:37
  I said, laughing, and I ran to my room and did what
• 30:41
  I had never done before, wrote a second poem in the same day.
• 30:44
  I had to have some outlet for my feelings. I called it in Summer
• 30:48
  Days of long Ago, and I worked Mary Gillespie's roses and Cecil Fenwick's eyes
• 30:52
  into it, and made it so sad and reminiscent and minor musicky that I
• 30:56
  felt perfectly happy for the next two months all went well and merrily. Nobody
• 31:00
  said anything more to me about Cecil Fenwick, but the girls all chatted freely
• 31:03
  to me of their love affairs, and I became a sort of general confidant
• 31:07
  for them. It just warmed up the cockles of my heart, and I
• 31:10
  began to enjoy the sewing circle famously. I got a lot of pretty new
• 31:14
  dresses and the dearest hat, and I went everywhere I was asked and had
• 31:18
  a good time. But there is one thing you can be perfectly sure of.
• 31:21
  If you do wrong, you are going to be punished for it sometime,
• 31:23
  somehow and somewhere. My punishment was delayed for two months, and then
• 31:29
  it descended on my head and I was crushed to the very dust. Another
• 31:33
  new family beside the Merces, had come to Avonlea in the spring. The
• 31:37
  Maxwells. There were just mister and Missus Maxwell. They were a middle aged
• 31:41
  couple and very well off. Mister Maxwell had bought the lumber mills and they
• 31:44
  lived up at the old Spencer Place, which had always been the place of
• 31:47
  Avonlea. They lived quietly and Missus Maxwell hardly ever went anywhere because she was
• 31:51
  delicate. She was out when I called, and I was out when she
• 31:53
  returned my call, so that I had never met her. It was the
• 31:56
  sewing circle day again at Sarah Gardner's. This time I was late. Everybody
• 32:00
  else was there when I arrived, and the minute I entered the room,
• 32:04
  I knew something had happened, although I couldn't imagine what. Everybody looked at
• 32:07
  me in the strangest way. Of course, Wilhelmina Mercer was the first to
• 32:12
  set her tongue, going, Oh, miss Holmes, have you seen him
• 32:15
  yet? She exclaimed, seen whom, I said, non excitedly, getting
• 32:19
  out my thimble and patterns. Why Cecil Fenwick, He's here in Avonlea visiting
• 32:24
  his sister, Missus Maxwell. I suppose I did what they expected me to
• 32:29
  do. I'd dropped everything I held, and Josephine Cameron said afterwards that Charlotte
• 32:34
  Holmes would never be paler when she was in her coffin if they had just
• 32:37
  known why I turned so pale. It's impossible, I said, blankly.
• 32:42
  It's really true, said Wilhelmina, delighted at this development, as she supposed
• 32:46
  it of my romance. I was up to see Missus Maxwell last night.
• 32:51
  And I met him. It can't be the same, Cecil Fenwick, I
• 32:55
  said, faintly, because I had to say something. Oh, yes it
• 32:59
  is. He belongs in Blakely, New Brunswick, and he's a lawyer,
• 33:04
  and he's been out west twenty two years. He is oh so handsome and
• 33:09
  just as you described him, except that his hair is quite gray. He
• 33:15
  never married, I asked, missus Maxwell. So you see he has never
• 33:19
  forgotten you, Miss Holmes. And oh, I believe everything is going to
• 33:23
  come out all right. I couldn't exactly share her cheerful belief. Everything seemed
• 33:29
  to me to be coming out most horribly wrong. I was so mixed up.
• 33:32
  I didn't know what to do or say. I felt as if I
• 33:35
  were in a bad dream. It must be a dream. They couldn't really
• 33:38
  be a Cecil Fenwick. My feelings were simply indescribable. Fortunately, everyone put
• 33:44
  my agitation down to quite a different cause, and they very kindly left me
• 33:47
  alone to recover myself. I shall never forget that awful afternoon. Right after
• 33:52
  tea, I excused myself and went home as fast as I could go.
• 33:55
  There. I shut myself up in my room, but not to write poetry.
• 33:59
  In my blank book. No indeed, I felt in no poetical mood.
• 34:02
  I tried to look the facts squarely in the face. There was a
• 34:06
  Cecil Fenwick, extraordinary as the coincidence was, and he was here in Avonlea.
• 34:10
  All my friends and foes believed that he was the estranged lover of my
• 34:15
  youth. If he stayed long in Avonlea, one of two things was bound
• 34:17
  to happen. He would hear the story I had told about him and deny
• 34:21
  it, and I would be held up to shame and derision for the rest
• 34:23
  of my natural life. Or else he would simply go away in ignorance,
• 34:28
  and everybody would suppose he had forgotten me and would pity me maddeningly. The
• 34:31
  latter possibility was bad enough, but it wasn't to be compared to the former.
• 34:36
  And oh how I prayed, Yes, I did pray about it,
• 34:38
  that he would go right away. But Providence had other views for me.
• 34:44
  Cecil Fenwick didn't go away. He stayed right on in Avonlea, and the
• 34:47
  Maxwells blossomed out socially in his honor and tried to give him a good time.
• 34:52
  Missus Maxwell gave a party for him. I got a card, but
• 34:54
  you may be very sure I didn't go, though Nancy thought I was crazy
• 34:58
  not to. Then every one else gave parties in honor of mister Fenwick,
• 35:00
  and I was invited and never went. Wilhelmina mercer came and pleaded and scolded
• 35:06
  and told me if I avoided mister Fenwick like that, he would think I
• 35:08
  still cherished bitterness against him, and he wouldn't make any advances towards a reconciliation.
• 35:14
  Wilhelmina means well, but she hasn't a great deal of sense. Cecil
• 35:17
  Fenwick seemed to be a great favorite with everybody young and old. He was
• 35:21
  very rich, too, and Wilhelmina declared that half the girls were after him.
• 35:24
  If it wasn't for you, miss Holmes, I believe I'd have a
• 35:29
  try for myself, in spite of his gray hair. In quick temper for
• 35:32
  missus, Maxwell says he has a pretty quick temper. But it's all over
• 35:37
  in a minute, said Wilhelmina, half in jest and wholly in earnest.
• 35:40
  As for me, I gave up going out at all, even to church.
• 35:44
  I fretted and pined and lost my appetite and never wrote a line in
• 35:46
  my blank book. Nancy was half frantic and insisted on dosing me with her
• 35:51
  favorite patent pills. I took them meekly, because it is a waste of
• 35:54
  time and energy to oppose Nancy. But of course they didn't do me any
• 35:58
  good. My trouble was too deep seated for pills to cure. If ever
• 36:01
  a woman was punished for telling a lie, I was that woman. I
• 36:05
  stopped my subscription to the Weekly Advocate because it still carried that wretched, porous
• 36:08
  plaster advertisement, and I couldn't bear to see it. If it hadn't been
• 36:12
  for that, I would never have thought of Fenwick for a name, and
• 36:15
  all this trouble would have been averted. One evening, when I was moping
• 36:19
  in my room, Nancy came up. There's a gentleman in the parlor asking
• 36:22
  for you, miss Charlotte. My heart gave just one horrible bounce. What
• 36:28
  sort of a gentleman, Nancy, I faltered, I think it's at Fenwick
• 36:31
  Nan. They spent such time about, said Nancy, who didn't know anything
• 36:35
  about my imaginary escapades, and he looks to be mad clean through about something.
• 36:38
  For such a scowl I never see. Tell him I'll be down directly,
• 36:43
  Nancy, I said, quite calmly. As soon as Nancy had clumped
• 36:45
  downstairs again, I put on my lace fichue and put two hankies in my
• 36:50
  belt, for I thought I'd probably need more than one. Then I hunted
• 36:52
  up an old advocate for proof, and down I went to the parlor.
• 36:55
  I know exactly how a criminal feels going to execution, and I've been opposed
• 37:00
  to capital punishment ever since. I opened the parlor door and went in,
• 37:04
  carefully closing it behind me, for Nancy has a deplorable habit of listening in
• 37:07
  the hall. Then my legs gave out completely, and I couldn't have walked
• 37:10
  another step to save my life. I just stood there, my hand on
• 37:15
  the knob, trembling like a leaf. A man was standing by the south
• 37:17
  window looking out. He wheeled around as I went in, and as Nancy
• 37:22
  said, he had a scowl on and looked angry clear through. He was
• 37:25
  very handsome, and his gray hair gave him such a distinguished look. I
• 37:30
  recalled this afterward, but just at the moment, you may be quite sure
• 37:32
  I wasn't thinking about it at all. Then all at once, a strange
• 37:36
  thing happened. The scowl went right off his face and the anger out of
• 37:38
  his eyes. He looked astonished and then foolish. I saw the color creeping
• 37:44
  up into his cheeks. As for me, I still stood there staring at
• 37:46
  him, not able to say a single word, Miss Holmes, I presume,
• 37:52
  he said at last, in a deep, thrilling voice. I I
• 37:55
  all confound it. I have called I heard some foolish and I came here
• 38:00
  in a rage. I've been a fool. I know now they weren't true.
• 38:06
  Just excuse me, and I'll go away and kick myself. No,
• 38:08
  I said, finding my voice with a gasp. You mustn't go until you've
• 38:12
  heard the truth. It's dreadful enough, but not as dreadful as you might
• 38:15
  otherwise think. Those those stories, I have a confession to make. I
• 38:20
  did tell them, but I didn't know there was such a person as Cecil
• 38:22
  Fenwick in existence. He looked puzzled as well he might. Then he smiled,
• 38:27
  took my hand and led me away from the door to the knob of
• 38:30
  which I was still holding with all my might, to the sofa. Let's
• 38:32
  sit down and talk it over. Comfy, he said, I just confessed
• 38:37
  the whole shameful business. It was terribly humiliating, but it served me right.
• 38:42
  I told him how people were always twitting me for never having had a
• 38:45
  bow, and how I had told them I had, And then I showed
• 38:47
  him the poorest plaster advertisement. He heard me right through without a word,
• 38:52
  and then he threw back his big, curly gray head and laughed. This
• 38:57
  clears up a great many mysterious hints I've been receiving ever since I came to
• 39:00
  Avonlea, he said. And finally, a missus Gilbert came to my sister
• 39:05
  this afternoon with a long fare ago of nonsense about the love affair I once
• 39:09
  had with some Charlotte Holmes. Here. She declared, you had told her
• 39:14
  about it yourself. I confess I flamed up. I'm a peppery chap,
• 39:17
  but I thought I thought, oh, confound it. It might as well
• 39:22
  out. I thought you were some lank old maid who was amusing herself telling
• 39:25
  ridiculous stories about me. When you came into the room, I knew that
• 39:30
  whoever was to blame, you were not, But I was, I said,
• 39:34
  ruefully, it wasn't right of me to tell such a story, and
• 39:37
  it was very silly too. But who would ever have supposed there could be
• 39:40
  a real Cecil Fenwick who had lived in Blakely. I'd never heard of such
• 39:44
  a coincidence. It's more than a coincidence, said mister Fenwick, decidedly.
• 39:49
  It's predestination. That's what it is, and now let's forget it and talk
• 39:52
  of something else. We talked of something else, or at least mister Fenwick
• 39:57
  did, for I was too ashamed to say much, so long that Nancy
• 40:00
  got restive and clumped through the hall every five minutes, but mister Fenwick never
• 40:04
  took the hint. When he finally went away, he asked if he might
• 40:07
  come again. It's time we meet at that old quarrel, you know,
• 40:09
  he said, laughing, And I, an old maid of forty, caught
• 40:14
  myself blushing like a girl. But I felt like a girl, for it
• 40:16
  was such a relief to have that explanation all over. I couldn't even feel
• 40:21
  angry with Adela Gilbert. She was always a mischief maker, and when a
• 40:23
  woman is born that way, she is more to be pitied than blamed.
• 40:27
  I wrote a poem in the blank book before I went to sleep. I
• 40:30
  hadn't written anything for a month, and it was lovely to be at it
• 40:32
  once more. Mister Fenwick did come again the very next evening but one,
• 40:37
  and he came so often after that that even Nancy got resigned to him.
• 40:39
  One day I had to tell her something. I shrank from doing it,
• 40:43
  for I feared it would make her feel badly. Oh, I've been expecting
• 40:45
  to hear it, she said grimly. I felt the minute that man came
• 40:50
  in the house he brought trouble with him. Well, Miss Charlotte, I
• 40:53
  wish you happiness. I don't know how the climate of California will agree with
• 40:58
  me, but I suppose I'll have to put up with it. But Nancy,
• 41:00
  I said, I can't expect you to go away out there with me.
• 41:04
  It's too much to ask of you. And where else would I be
• 41:07
  going? Demanded Nancy, in genuine astonishment. How under the canopy could you
• 41:12
  keep house without me? I'm not going to trust you to the mercies of
• 41:15
  the yellow Chinese with a pigtail. Where you go, I go, Miss
• 41:19
  Charlotte, and there's an end of it. I was very glad, for
• 41:22
  I hated to think of parting with Nancy, even to go with Cecil.
• 41:24
  As for the blank book, I haven't told my husband about it yet,
• 41:28
  but I meant you someday, and I've subscribed to the Weakely Advocate again.
• 41:32
  End of story two. We must invite your Aunt Jane, of course,
• 41:37
  said missus Spencer. Rachel made a protesting movement with her large, white,
• 41:42
  shapely hands, hands which were so different from the thin, dark, twisted
• 41:46
  ones folded on the table opposite her. The difference was not caused by hard
• 41:51
  work or the lack of it. Rachel had worked hard all her life.
• 41:55
  It was a different inherent in temperament dispences. No matter what they did or
• 42:00
  how hard they labored, all had plump, smooth, white hands with firm,
• 42:07
  supple fingers. The chiswicks. Even those who toiled not neither did they
• 42:10
  spin, had hard, knotted, twisted ones. Moreover, the contrast went
• 42:16
  deeper than externals, entwined itself with the innermost fibers of life and thought and
• 42:22
  action. I don't see why we must invite Aunt Jane, said Rachel,
• 42:27
  with as much impatience as her soft throaty voice could express. Aunt Jane doesn't
• 42:31
  like me, and I don't like Aunt Jane. I'm sure I don't see
• 42:36
  why you don't like her, said missus Spencer. It's ungrateful of you.
• 42:39
  She has always been very kind to you. She has always been very kind
• 42:44
  with one hand, smiled Rachel. I remember the first time I ever saw
• 42:47
  Aunt Jane. I was six years old. She held out to me a
• 42:51
  small velvet pincushion with beads on it, and then, because I did not,
• 42:55
  in my shyness, thank her quite as promptly as I should have done,
• 42:59
  she wrapped my head with her bethimbled finger to teach me better manners.
• 43:04
  It hurt horribly. I've always had a tender head, and that had been
• 43:07
  Aunt Jane's way ever since. When I grew too big for the thimble treatment,
• 43:12
  she used her tongue instead, and that hurt worse. And you know,
• 43:15
  mother, how she used to talk about my engagement. She is able
• 43:19
  to spoil the whole atmosphere if she happens to come in a bad humor.
• 43:22
  I don't want her. She must be invited. People would talk, so
• 43:27
  if she wasn't, I don't see why they should. She's only my great
• 43:30
  aunt by marriage. I wouldn't mind in the least if people did talk.
• 43:34
  They'll talk anyway, you know that mother. Oh, we must have her,
• 43:37
  said missus Spencer, with an indifferent finality that marked all her words and
• 43:43
  decisions, a finality against which it was seldom of any avail to struggle.
• 43:49
  People who knew rarely attempted it. Strangers occasionally did. Misled by the deceit
• 43:54
  of appearances, Isabella Spencer was a wisp of a woman, with a pale,
• 44:00
  pretty face, uncertainly colored, long lashed, grayish eyes, and great
• 44:05
  masses of dull, soft, silky brown hair. She had delicate, aquiline
• 44:09
  features and a small baby's red mouth. She looked as if a breath would
• 44:15
  sway her. The truth was that a tornado would hardly have caused her to
• 44:20
  swerve an inch from her chosen path. For a moment, Rachel looked rebellious.
• 44:24
  Then she yielded, as she generally did in all differences of opinion with
• 44:30
  her mother. It was not worth while to quarrel over the comparatively unimportant matter
• 44:35
  of Aunt Jane's invitation. A quarrel might be inevitable later on. Rachel wanted
• 44:40
  to save all her resources for that. She gave her shoulders a shrug and
• 44:45
  wrote Aunt Jane's name down on the wedding list in her large, somewhat untidy
• 44:50
  handwriting, a handwriting which always seemed to irritate her mother. Rachel never could
• 44:55
  understand this irritation. She could never guess that it was because of writing looked
• 45:00
  so much like that in a certain packet of faded letters, which Missus Spencer
• 45:06
  kept to the bottom of an old horsehair trunk in her bedroom. They were
• 45:09
  postmarked from seaports all over the world. Missus Spencer never read them or looked
• 45:15
  at them, but she remembered every dash and curve of the handwriting. Isabella
• 45:19
  Spencer had overcome many things in her life by the sheer force and persistency of
• 45:23
  her will, but she could not get the better of her redity. Rachel
• 45:28
  was her father's daughter at all points, and Isabella Spencer escaped hating her for
• 45:32
  it only by loving her them more fiercely because of it. Even so,
• 45:37
  there were many times when she had to avert her eyes from Rachel's face because
• 45:42
  of the pang of the more subtle remembrances. And never since her child was
• 45:46
  born could Isabella Spencer bear to gaze on that child's face in sleep. Rachel
• 45:52
  was to be married to Frank Bell in a fortnight's time. Missus Spencer was
• 45:58
  pleased with the match. She was very fond of Frank, and his farm
• 46:00
  was so near to her own that she would not lose Rachel altogether. Rachel
• 46:06
  fondly believed that her mother would not lose her at all. But Isabella Spencer,
• 46:09
  wiser by old inexperience, knew what her daughter's marriage must meet to her,
• 46:15
  and steeled her heart to bear it with what fortitude she might. They
• 46:19
  were in the sitting room, deciding on the wedding guests and other details.
• 46:22
  The September sunshine was coming in through the waving bolts of the apple tree that
• 46:28
  grew close up to the low window. The glints wavered over Rachel's face,
• 46:32
  as white as a wood lily, with only a faint dream of rose in
• 46:36
  the cheeks. She wore her sleek, golden hair in a quaint arch around
• 46:42
  it. Her forehead was very broad and white. She was fresh and young
• 46:46
  and hopeful. The mother's heart contracted in a spasm of pain as she looked
• 46:51
  at her. How like the girl was to to to dispense this Those easy
• 46:59
  curves out lines, those large mirthful blue eyes that finely molded chin Isabella Spencer
• 47:07
  shut her lips firmly and crushed down some unbidden, unwelcome memories. There will
• 47:12
  be about sixty guests all told, she said, as if she were thinking
• 47:15
  of nothing else. We must move the furniture out of this room and set
• 47:19
  the supper table here. The dining room is too small. We must borrow
• 47:22
  missus Bell's forks and spoons. She offered to lend them. I'd never have
• 47:27
  been willing to ask her. The damask tablecloths with the ribbon pattern must be
• 47:31
  bleached tomorrow. Nobody else in Avonlea has such tablecloths, and will put the
• 47:36
  little dining room table on the hall landing up stairs for the presents. Rachel
• 47:40
  was not thinking about the presents or the housewifely details of the wedding. Her
• 47:45
  breath was coming quicker, and the faint blush on her smooth cheeks had deepened
• 47:50
  to crimson. She knew that a critical moment was approaching. With a steady
• 47:54
  hand, she wrote a last name on her list and drew a line under
• 47:59
  it. Well have you finished, asked her mother, impatiently. Hand it
• 48:02
  here and let me look over it to make sure you haven't left out anybody
• 48:07
  that should be in. Rachel passed the paper across the table in silence.
• 48:12
  The room seemed to her to have grown very still. She could hear the
• 48:15
  flies buzzing on the plains, the soft purr of the wind about the low
• 48:20
  eaves, and through the applebows, the jerky beating of her own heart.
• 48:24
  She felt frightened and nervous, but resolute. Missus Spencer glanced down at the
• 48:30
  list, murmuring the names aloud and nodding approval at each, But when she
• 48:36
  came to the last name, she did not utter it. She cast a
• 48:39
  black glance at Rachel, and as spark leaped up in the depth of the
• 48:44
  pale eyes on her face were anger, amazement, incredulity. The last predominating
• 48:52
  The final name on the list of wedding guests was the name of David Spencer.
• 48:58
  David Spencer lived alone in a little damned the cove. He was a
• 49:01
  combination of Selah and Fisherman. He was also Isabella Spencer's husband and Rachel's father.
• 49:08
  Rachel Spencer, have you taken leave of your senses? What do you
• 49:12
  mean by such nonsense as this? I simply mean that I am going to
• 49:15
  invite my father to my wedding, answered Rachel quietly. Not in my house,
• 49:22
  cried missus Spencer, her lips as white as if her fiery tone had
• 49:25
  sketched them. Rachel leaned forward, folded her large capable hands deliberately on the
• 49:31
  table, and gazed unflinchingly into her mother's bitter face. Her fright and nervousness
• 49:37
  were gone. Now that the conflict was actually on, she found herself rather
• 49:42
  enjoying it. She wondered a little at herself and thought that she must be
• 49:46
  wicked. She was not given to self analysis, or she might have concluded
• 49:51
  that it was the sudden assertion of her own personality, so long dominated by
• 49:55
  her mother's, which she was finding so agreeable. Then and there will be
• 50:00
  no wedding, mother, she said, Frank, and I will simply go
• 50:04
  to the man's, be married, and go home. If I cannot invite
• 50:07
  my father to see me married, no one else shall be invited. Her
• 50:09
  lips narrowed tightly. For the first time in her life, Isabella Spencer saw
• 50:15
  a reflection of herself looking back at her from her daughter's face. A strange,
• 50:21
  indefinable a resemblance that was more of soul and spirit than of flesh and
• 50:24
  blood. In spite of her anger, her heart thrilled to it as never
• 50:30
  before. She realized that this girl was her own and her husband's child,
• 50:35
  a living bond between them, wherein their conflicting natures mingled and were reconciled.
• 50:42
  She realized too that Rachel, so long sweetly, meek and obedient, meant
• 50:46
  to have her own way in this case, and would have it. I
• 50:50
  must say, I can't see why you are so set on having your father
• 50:53
  see you married, she said, with a bitter snare. He has never
• 50:57
  remembered that he is your father, hears nothing about you, never did care.
• 51:01
  Rachel took no notice of this taunt. It had no power to hurt
• 51:06
  her, its vemen being neutralized by a secret knowledge of her own in which
• 51:09
  her mother had no share. Either I shall invite my father to my wedding,
• 51:14
  or I shall not have a wedding, she repeated, steadily, adopting
• 51:17
  her mother's own effective tactics of repetition, undistracted by argument. Invite him,
• 51:22
  then snapped missus Spencer with the ungraceful anger of a woman long accustomed to having
• 51:28
  her own way, compelled for once to yield, it'll be like chips and
• 51:31
  porridge anyhow, neither good nor harm. He won't come. Rachel made no
• 51:37
  response. Now that the battle was over and the victory won, she found
• 51:40
  herself tremulously on the verge of tears. She rose quickly and went upstairs to
• 51:45
  her own room, a dim little place shadowed by the white birches growing thickly
• 51:51
  outside, a virginal room where everything bespoke the maiden. She lay down on
• 51:57
  the blue and white patchwork quilt on her bed and cried softly and bitterly.
• 52:04
  Her heart, at this crisis in her life, yearned for her father,
• 52:07
  who was almost a stranger to her. She knew that her mother had probably
• 52:12
  spoken the truth when she said that he would not come. Rachel felt that
• 52:15
  her marriage, whilst would be lacking in some indefinable sacredness if her father were
• 52:21
  not by to hear them spoken. Twenty five years before this, David Spencer
• 52:25
  and Isabella Chiswick had been married. Spiteful people said there could be no doubt
• 52:31
  that Isabella had married David for love, since he had neither lands nor money
• 52:36
  to tempt her into a match of bargain and sale. David was a handsome
• 52:40
  fellow with the blood of a seafaring race in his veins. He had been
• 52:45
  a sailor like his father and grandfather before him, But when he married Isabella,
• 52:50
  she induced him to give up the sea and settled down with her on
• 52:52
  a snug farm her father had left her. Isabella liked farming and loved her
• 52:58
  fertile achis and opulent orchyards. She abhorred the sea and all that pertained to
• 53:05
  it, less from any dread of its dangers than from an inbred conviction.
• 53:09
  The sailors were low in the social scale, a species of necessary vagabonds.
• 53:15
  In her eyes, there was a taint of disgrace in such a calling.
• 53:20
  David must be transformed into a respectable, home abiding tiller of broad Lands.
• 53:25
  For five years all went well enough. If at times David's longing for the
• 53:30
  sea troubled him, he stifled it and listened not to its luring voice.
• 53:36
  He and Isabel were very happy. The only drawback to their happiness lay in
• 53:39
  the regretted fact that they were childless. Then, in the sixth year came
• 53:45
  a crisis and a change. Captain Barrett, an old crony of David's,
• 53:51
  wanted him to go with them on a voyage as mate. At the suggestion,
• 53:54
  all David's long repressed craving for the white, blue wastes of the ocean
• 54:00
  and the wind whistling through the spars with the salt foam in its breath,
• 54:04
  broke forth with a passion all the more intense for that very repression. He
• 54:08
  must go on that voyage with James Barrett. He must that over he would
• 54:15
  be contented again. But go he must, His soul struggled within him like
• 54:20
  a fettered thing. Isabella opposed to the scheme vehemently and unwisely, with morderant
• 54:25
  sarcasm and unjust reproaches. The latent obstinacy of David's character came to the support
• 54:31
  of his longing, a longing which Isabella, with five generations of land lowing
• 54:37
  ancestry behind her, could not understand at all. He was determined to go.
• 54:42
  When he told Isabella, so I'm sick of plowing and milking cows,
• 54:45
  he said hotly, you mean that you are sick of a respectable life.
• 54:50
  Snared Isabella, perhaps, said David, with a contemptuous shrug of his shoulders.
• 54:55
  Anywhere I'm going. If you go on this voyage, David Spencer,
• 54:59
  you need never come back here, said Isabella resolutely. David had gone.
• 55:04
  He did not believe that she meant it. Isabella believed that he did not
• 55:07
  care whether she meant it or not. David Spencer left behind him a woman,
• 55:12
  calm outwardly, inwardly a seething volcano of anger, wounded pride and thwarted
• 55:17
  will. He found precisely the same woman when he came home, turned joyous,
• 55:22
  tamed for a while of his wonder lust, ready with something of real
• 55:27
  affection to go back to the farm, fields and stockyard. Isabella met me
• 55:31
  at the door, smileless, cold eyed, settle lipped. What do you
• 55:36
  want here, she said, in the tone she was accustomed to use to
• 55:39
  tramps and Syrian pedlas. Want. David's surprise left him at all loss for
• 55:45
  words. Want why, I I want my wife? I've come home.
• 55:51
  This is not your home. I'm no wife of yours. You made your
• 55:53
  choice when you went away, Isabella had replied. Then she had gone in,
• 55:58
  shut the door and locked it in his face. David had stood there
• 56:01
  for a few minutes like a man stunned. Then he had turned and walked
• 56:06
  away up the lane under the birches. He said nothing then, or at
• 56:10
  any other time from that day. No reference to his wife or her concerns
• 56:15
  ever crossed his lips. He went directly to the harbor and shipped with Captain
• 56:20
  Barrett for another voyage. When he came back from that in a month's time,
• 56:24
  he bought a small house and had it hauled to the cove, a
• 56:29
  lonely inlet from which no other human habitation was visible. Between his sea voyages.
• 56:35
  He lived there the life of a recluse. Fishing and playing his violin
• 56:38
  were his only employments. He went nowhere and encouraged no visitors. Isabella Spencer
• 56:45
  also had adopted the tactics of silence. When the scandalized, Chiswick's aunt Jane
• 56:51
  at their head, tried to patch up the matter with argument and entreaty,
• 56:55
  Isabella met him stonily, seeming not to hear what they said. In making
• 57:00
  no response, she versted them totally. As Aunt Jane said in disgust,
• 57:07
  what can you do with a woman who won't even talk? Five months after
• 57:12
  David Spencer had been turned from his wife's door, Rachel was born. Perhaps
• 57:15
  if David had come to them. Then with due penitence and humility. Isabella's
• 57:22
  heart, softened by the pain and joy of her long and ardently desired motherhood,
• 57:27
  might have cast out the rankling venom of resentment that had poisoned it and
• 57:30
  taken him back into it. But David had not come. He gave no
• 57:35
  sign of knowing or caring that his once longed for child had been born.
• 57:40
  When Isabella was able to be about again, her pale face was harder than
• 57:45
  ever, And had there been about her any one discerning enough to notice it,
• 57:49
  there was a subtle change in her bearing and manner. A certain nervous
• 57:53
  expectancy, a fluttering restlessness, was gone. Isabella had ceased to hope secretly
• 58:00
  that her husband would yet come back. She had, in her secret soul
• 58:04
  thought he would, and she had meant to forgive him when she had humbled
• 58:07
  him sufficiently, and when he had abased himself as she considered he should.
• 58:12
  But now she knew that he did not mean to sue for her forgiveness,
• 58:15
  and the hate that sprang out of her old love was a rank and speedy
• 58:19
  and persistent growth. Rachel, from her earliest recollection, had been vaguely conscious
• 58:24
  of a difference between her own life and the lives of her playmates. For
• 58:30
  a long time, it puzzled her childish brain. Finally, she reasoned it
• 58:35
  out that the difference consisted in the fact that they had fathers, and she,
• 58:39
  Rachael Spencer, had none, not even in the graveyard, as Carrie
• 58:44
  Bell and Lilia Balter had. Why was this? Rachel went straight to her
• 58:49
  mother, put one little dimpled hand on Isabella Spencer's knee, looked up with
• 58:52
  great, searching blue eyes, and said, gravely, mother, why haven't
• 58:57
  I got a father like the other little girls. Isabella Spencer laid aside her
• 59:00
  work, took the seven year old child on her lap, and told her
• 59:05
  the whole story in a few direct and bitter words that imprinted themselves incredibly on
• 59:09
  Rachel's remembrance. She understood clearly and hopelessly that she could never have a father,
• 59:15
  that in this respect she must always be unlike other people. Your father
• 59:21
  cares nothing for you, said Isabella Spencer in conclusion. He never did care.
• 59:25
  You must never speak of him to any one again. Rachel slipped silently
• 59:30
  from her mother's knee and ran out to the springtime garden with a full heart.
• 59:35
  There she cried passionately over her mother's last words. It seemed to her
• 59:39
  a terrible thing that her father should not love her, and a cruel thing
• 59:43
  that she must never talk of him. Oddly enough, Rachel's sympathies were all
• 59:47
  with her father. In as far as she could understand the old quarrel.
• 59:52
  She did not dream of disobeying her mother, and she did not disobey her.
• 59:57
  Never again did a child speak of her father, But Isabella had not
• 1:00:00
  forbidden her to think of him, And thenceforth Rachel thought of him constantly,
• 1:00:05
  so constantly that in some strange way, he seemed to become an unguested of
• 1:00:09
  part of her inner life, the unseen, ever present companion in all her
• 1:00:15
  experiences. She was an imaginative child, and in fancy she made the acquaintance
• 1:00:22
  of her father. She had never seen him, but he was more real
• 1:00:24
  to her than most of the people she had seen. He played and talked
• 1:00:30
  with her as her mother never did. He walked with her in the orchard
• 1:00:34
  and field and garden. He sat by her pillow in the twilight. To
• 1:00:38
  him she whispered secrets she told to none other. Once her mother asked her
• 1:00:44
  impatiently why she talked so much to herself. I am not talking to myself,
• 1:00:47
  I am talking to a very dear friend of mine, Rachel answered,
• 1:00:51
  gravely. Silly child laughter, mother, half tolerantly, half disapprovingly. Two
• 1:00:58
  years later, something wonderful had happened to Rachel. One summer afternoon. She
• 1:01:02
  had gone to the harbor with several of her little playmates. Such a jaunt
• 1:01:07
  was a red treat to the child. For Isabella. Spencer seldom allowed her
• 1:01:10
  to go from home with anybody but herself, and Isabella was not an entertaining
• 1:01:15
  companion. Rachel never particularly enjoyed an outing with her mother. The children wandered
• 1:01:21
  far along the shore. At last they came to a place that Rachel had
• 1:01:23
  never seen before. It was a shallow cove where the waters purred in the
• 1:01:28
  yellow sand. Beyond it, the sea was laughing and flashing and preening and
• 1:01:32
  alluring like a beautiful coquettish woman. Outside, the wind was boisterous and rollicking.
• 1:01:40
  Here it was reverent and gentle. A white boat was hauled up on
• 1:01:45
  the skids, and there was a queer little house close down to the sands,
• 1:01:50
  like a big shell. Tossed up by the waves. Rachel looked on
• 1:01:54
  it all with secret delight. She too loved the lonely places of sea.
• 1:02:00
  Sure as her father had done, she wanted to linger awhile in this deare
• 1:02:04
  spot and revel in it. I'm tired, girls, she announced, I'm
• 1:02:08
  going to stay here and rest for a spell. I don't want to go
• 1:02:12
  to gold Point. You go on yourselves. I'll wait for you here all
• 1:02:15
  alone, asked Carrie Bell, wonderingly. I'm not so afraid of being alone
• 1:02:21
  as some people are, said Rachel with dignity. The other girls went on,
• 1:02:25
  leaving Rachel sitting on the skids in the shadow of the big white boat.
• 1:02:30
  She sat there for a time, dreaming happily, with her blue eyes
• 1:02:34
  on the far pearly horizon and her golden head leaning against the boat. Suddenly
• 1:02:39
  she heard a step behind her. When she turned her head, a man
• 1:02:44
  was standing beside her, looking down at her with big, merry blue eyes.
• 1:02:47
  Rachel was quite sure she had never seen him before, yet those eyes
• 1:02:52
  seemed to her to have a strangely familiar look. She liked him. She
• 1:02:57
  felt no shyness nor timidity such as usually afflicted her in the presence of strangers.
• 1:03:02
  He was a tall, stout man, dressed in a rough fishing suit
• 1:03:06
  and wearing an oilskin cap on his head. His hair was very thick and
• 1:03:10
  curly and fair. His cheeks were tanned and red. His teeth, when
• 1:03:15
  he smiled, were very even and white. Rachel thought he must be quite
• 1:03:21
  old, because there was a good deal of gray mixed with his fair hair.
• 1:03:24
  Are you watching for the mermaids? He said? Rachel nodded gravely.
• 1:03:29
  From any one else, she would have scrupulously hidden such a thought, Yes,
• 1:03:32
  I am, she said. Mother says there's no such thing as a
• 1:03:37
  mermaid, but I like to think there is. Have you ever seen one?
• 1:03:40
  The big man sat down on a bleached log of driftwood and smiled at
• 1:03:44
  her. No, I'm sorry to say that I haven't, but I have
• 1:03:47
  seen many other very wonderful things. I might tell you about some of them
• 1:03:52
  if he would come over here and sit by me. Rachel went unhesitatingly.
• 1:03:55
  When she reached him. He pulled her down on his knee, and she
• 1:03:59
  liked it. What a nice little craft you are, he said. Do
• 1:04:02
  you suppose now that he could give me a kiss? As a rule,
• 1:04:05
  Rachel hated kissing. She could seldom be prevailed upon to kiss, even her
• 1:04:10
  uncles, who knew it and liked to choose her for kisses, until they
• 1:04:13
  aggravated her so terribly that she told them she couldn't bear men. But now
• 1:04:16
  she promptly put her arms about this strange man's neck and gave him a hearty
• 1:04:21
  smack. I like you, she said frankly. She felt his arms tightened
• 1:04:27
  suddenly about her. The blue eyes looking into hers grew misty and very tender.
• 1:04:31
  Then all at once Rachel knew he was He was her father. She
• 1:04:36
  did not say anything, but she laid her curly head down on his shoulder
• 1:04:41
  and felt a great happiness as the one who had come into some longed for
• 1:04:45
  haven. If David Spencer realized that she understood, he said nothing. Instead,
• 1:04:50
  he began to tell her fascinating stories of far lands he had visited and
• 1:04:56
  strange things he had seen. Rachel listened and chanced as if she were hearkening
• 1:05:00
  to her fairy tale. Yes, he was just as she had dreamed him.
• 1:05:05
  She had always been sure he could tell beautiful stories. Come up to
• 1:05:10
  the house and I'll show you some pretty things, he said, finally,
• 1:05:14
  then followed a wonderful hour. The little low ceilinged room, with its square
• 1:05:18
  window into which she took her was filled with the flottum and jetsam of his
• 1:05:23
  roving life, things beautiful and odd and strange beyond all telling. The things
• 1:05:30
  that pleased Rachel most were two huge shells on the chimney piece, pale pink
• 1:05:34
  shells with big crimson and purple spots. Oh, I didn't know there could
• 1:05:39
  be such pretty things in the world, she exclaimed, If you would like,
• 1:05:44
  began the big man. Then he paused for a moment. I'll show
• 1:05:46
  you something prettier. Still, Rachel felt vaguely that he meant to say something
• 1:05:51
  else when he began, but she forgot to wonder what it was when she
• 1:05:57
  saw what he brought out of a little corner cupboard. It was a teapot
• 1:06:00
  of some fine, glistening purple were coiled over by golden dragons with gilded claws
• 1:06:06
  and scales. The lid looked like a beautiful golden flower, and the handle
• 1:06:12
  was a coil of a dragon's tail. Rachel sat and looked at it,
• 1:06:15
  rapt eyed. That's the only thing of any value I have in the world.
• 1:06:19
  Now, he said. Rachel knew there was something very sad in his
• 1:06:23
  eyes and voice. She longed to kiss him again and comfort him. But
• 1:06:27
  suddenly he began to laugh, and then he rummaged out some goodies for her
• 1:06:30
  to eat, sweetmeats more delicious than she had ever imagined. While she nibbled
• 1:06:35
  them, he took down an old violin and played music that made her want
• 1:06:40
  to dance and sing. Rachel was perfectly happy. She wished she might stay
• 1:06:45
  forever in that low, dim room with all its treasures. I see your
• 1:06:48
  little friends coming round the point, he said. Finally, I suppose you
• 1:06:53
  must go. Put the rest of the goodies in your pocket. He took
• 1:06:56
  her up in his arms and held her tightly against his breast. For a
• 1:07:00
  single moment, she felt them kissing her hair. Bear run along, little
• 1:07:03
  girl, good bye, he said gently. Why don't you ask me to
• 1:07:08
  come and see you again? Cried Rachel, half in tears. I'm coming
• 1:07:12
  anyhow, if you can come, come, he said. If you don't
• 1:07:15
  come, I shall know it is because you can't, and that is much
• 1:07:18
  to know. I'm very, very very glad, little woman, that you
• 1:07:23
  have come. Once, Rachel was sitting demurely on the skids. When her
• 1:07:27
  companions came back, they had not seen her leaving the house, and she
• 1:07:30
  said not a word to them of her experiences. She only smiled mysteriously when
• 1:07:35
  they asked her if she had been lonesome that night. For the first time,
• 1:07:41
  she mentioned her father's name in her prayers. She never forgot to do
• 1:07:45
  so afterwards. She always said bless mother and father, with an instinctive pause
• 1:07:51
  between the two names, a pause which indicated new realizations of the tragedy which
• 1:07:58
  had sundered them, and the tone in which she said father was softer and
• 1:08:02
  more tender than the one which voiced mother. Rachel never visited to Cove again.
• 1:08:08
  Isabella Spencer discovered that the children had been there, and although she knew
• 1:08:13
  nothing of Rachel's interview with her father, she told the child that she must
• 1:08:16
  never again go to that part of the shore. Rachel shed many a bitter
• 1:08:20
  tear in secret over this command, but she obeyed it. Thenceforth, there
• 1:08:25
  had been no communication between her and her father, save the unworthed message of
• 1:08:30
  soul to soul across whatever may divide them. David Spencer's imitation to his daughter's
• 1:08:35
  wedding was sent with the others, and the remaining days of Rachael's maidenhood slipped
• 1:08:41
  away in a whirl of preparation and excitement in which her mother reveled, but
• 1:08:45
  which was distasteful to the girl. The wedding day came at last, breaking
• 1:08:50
  softly and fairly over the great sea in a sheen of silver and pearl,
• 1:08:55
  and rose a September day, as mild and beautiful as jew The ceremony was
• 1:09:00
  to be performed at eight o'clock in the evening. At seven, rachel stood
• 1:09:04
  in her room, fully dressed and alone. She had no bridesmaid, and
• 1:09:10
  she had asked her cousins to leave her to herself in this last solemn hour
• 1:09:14
  of girlhood. She looked very fair and sweet in the sunset light that showered
• 1:09:19
  through the birches. Her wedding gown was a fine chaer organdy, simply and
• 1:09:25
  datily made in the loose waves of her bright hair. She wore her bridegrooms
• 1:09:30
  flowers roses, as white as a virgin stream. She was very happy,
• 1:09:35
  but her happiness was faintly threaded with a sorrow, inseparable from all change.
• 1:09:41
  Presently, her mother came in carrying a small basket. Here is something for
• 1:09:45
  you, Rachel. One of the boys from the harbor brought it up.
• 1:09:48
  He was bound to give it to you into your own hands. Said that
• 1:09:51
  was his orders. I just took it and sent him to the rite about,
• 1:09:55
  told him I'd give it to you at once, and that that was
• 1:09:58
  all that was necessary. She spoke coldly. She knew quite well who had
• 1:10:02
  sent the basket, and she resented it, but her resentment was not quite
• 1:10:08
  strong enough to overcome her curiosity. She stood silently and by while Rachel unpacked
• 1:10:13
  the basket. Rachel's hands trembled as she took off the cover. Two huge
• 1:10:18
  pink, spotted shells came first, how well she remembered them. Beneath them,
• 1:10:25
  carefully wrapped up in a square of foreign looking strangely sent a silk,
• 1:10:29
  was a dragon teacup. She held it in her hands and gazed at it,
• 1:10:33
  with tears gathering thickly in her eyes. Your father sent that, said
• 1:10:39
  Isabella Spencer, with an odd sound in her voice. I remember it well.
• 1:10:44
  It was among the things I packed up and sent after him. His
• 1:10:46
  father brought it home from China fifty years ago when he prized it beyond anything.
• 1:10:50
  They used to say. It was worth a lot of money. Mother,
• 1:10:54
  Please leave me alone for a little while, said Rachel imploringly. She
• 1:10:58
  had caught sight of a little note at the bottom of the basket, and
• 1:11:00
  she felt that she could not read it under her mother's eyes. Missus Spencer
• 1:11:04
  went out with unaccustomed acquiescence, and Rachel went quickly to the window, where
• 1:11:10
  she read the letter by the fading gleampse of twilight. It was very brief,
• 1:11:15
  and the writing was that of a man who holds a pen, but
• 1:11:17
  seldom My dear little girl, it ran. I'm sorry I can't go to
• 1:11:23
  your wedding. It was like you to ask me for I know it was
• 1:11:26
  your doing. I wish I could see you married, but I can't go
• 1:11:29
  to the house that I was turned out of. I hope you'll be very
• 1:11:31
  happy. I'm sending you the shells and teapot you liked so much. Do
• 1:11:35
  you remember that day? We had such a good time. I would have
• 1:11:39
  liked to have sent you again before you were married, but it can't be
• 1:11:43
  your loving father, David Spencer. Rachel resolutely blinked away the tears that filled
• 1:11:47
  her eyes. A fierce desire for her father sprang up in her heart,
• 1:11:53
  an insistent hunger that would not be denied. She must see her father,
• 1:11:58
  She must have his blessing on her new life. A sudden determination took possession
• 1:12:02
  of her whole being, a determination to sweep aside all conventionalities and objections as
• 1:12:09
  if they had not been. It was now almost dark. The guests were
• 1:12:14
  not becoming for half an hour, yet it was only fifteen minute walk over
• 1:12:17
  the hill to the cove. Hastily, Rachel shrouded herself in her new raincoat
• 1:12:21
  and drew a dark protecting hood over her gay head. She opened the door
• 1:12:27
  and slipped noiselessly downstairs. Missus Spencer and her assistance were all busy in the
• 1:12:31
  back part of the house. In a moment, Rachel was out in the
• 1:12:34
  dewy garden. She would go straight out over the fields. Nobody would see
• 1:12:40
  her. It was quite dark when she reached the cove. In the crystal
• 1:12:45
  cup of the sky over her, the stars were blinking. Flying flakes of
• 1:12:48
  a foam were scurrying over the sand like elfin things. A soft little wind
• 1:12:54
  was crooning about the eaves of the little gray house, where David Spencer was
• 1:12:58
  sitting alone in the twilight, his violin on his knee. He had been
• 1:13:02
  trying to play, but could not. His heart yearned after his daughter,
• 1:13:08
  Yes, and after a long estranged bride of his youth. His love of
• 1:13:12
  the sea was stated forever. His love for wife and child still cried for
• 1:13:16
  its own under all his old anger and stubbornness. The door opened suddenly,
• 1:13:21
  and the very Rachel of whom he was dreaming came suddenly in, flinging off
• 1:13:27
  her wraps and standing forth in her young beauty and bridal adornments, a splendid
• 1:13:31
  creature, almost lighting up the gloom with her radiance. Father. She cried
• 1:13:36
  brokenly, and her father's eager arms closed around her back. In the house
• 1:13:43
  she had left, the guests were coming to the wedding. There were jests
• 1:13:46
  and laughter and friendly greeting. The bridegroom came too, a slim, dark
• 1:13:51
  eyed lad who tiptoed bashfully upstairs to despair room, from which he presently emerged
• 1:13:58
  to confront Missus Spencer on the landing. I want to see Rachel before we
• 1:14:01
  go down, he said, blushing. Missus Spencer deposited it a wedding present
• 1:14:05
  of linen on the table, which was already laden with gifts, opening the
• 1:14:11
  door of Rachel's room and called her. There was no reply. The room
• 1:14:15
  was dark and still. In sudden alarm, Isabella Spencer snatched the lamp from
• 1:14:19
  the hall table and held it up. The little white room was empty.
• 1:14:25
  No blushing, white clad bride tenanted it. But David Spencer's letter was lying
• 1:14:30
  on the stand. She caught it up and read it. Rachel was gone.
• 1:14:33
  She gasped. A flash of intuition had revealed to her where and why
• 1:14:38
  the girl had gone gone, echoed Frank, his face blanching, his pallid
• 1:14:44
  dismay, recalled missus Spencer to herself. She gave a bitter, ugly little
• 1:14:47
  laugh. Oh you needn't look so scared, Frank, She hasn't run away
• 1:14:51
  from you. Hush, come in here, shut the door. Nobody must
• 1:14:56
  know of this nice gossip. It would make that little fool has gone to
• 1:14:59
  the cove to see her her father. I know she has. It's just
• 1:15:02
  like what she would do. He sent her those presents. Look and this
• 1:15:06
  letter. Read it. She's gone to coax him to come and see her
• 1:15:10
  married. She was crazy about it. And the minister is here, and
• 1:15:13
  it is half past seven, she'll ruin her dress and shoes in the dust
• 1:15:16
  and dew. What if someone has seen her? Was there ever such a
• 1:15:20
  little fool. Frank's presence of mind had returned to him. He knew all
• 1:15:26
  about Rachel and her father. She had told him everything. I'll go after
• 1:15:30
  her, he said gently. Get me my hat and coat. I'll flip
• 1:15:32
  down the back stairs and over to the cove. You must go out the
• 1:15:35
  pantry window. Then said Missus Bencer, firmly, mingling comedy and tragedy after
• 1:15:41
  her characteristic fashion. The kitchen is full of women. I won't have this
• 1:15:45
  known and talked about if it can possibly be helped. The bridegroom, wis
• 1:15:49
  beyond his years, in the knowledge that it was well to yield to women
• 1:15:54
  in little things, crawled obediently out of the panther window and darted through the
• 1:15:58
  birch woods. Missus Spencer had stood quakingly young guard until he had disappeared.
• 1:16:03
  Sir Rachel had gone to her father. Luke had broken the fetters of years
• 1:16:08
  and fled to like. It isn't much use fighting against nature, I guess,
• 1:16:13
  she thought, grimly. I'm beat. He must have thought something of
• 1:16:16
  her, after all, when he centered that teapot and letter. And what
• 1:16:19
  does he mean about the day they had such a good time. Well,
• 1:16:23
  it just means that she's been to see him before some time, I suppose,
• 1:16:27
  and kept me in ignorance of it all. Missus Spencer shut down the
• 1:16:30
  pantry window with a vicious thought. If only she'll come quietly back with Frank
• 1:16:34
  in time to prevent gossip, I'll forgive her, she said, as she
• 1:16:38
  turned to the kitchen. Rachel was sitting on her father's knee with both her
• 1:16:42
  white arms around his neck. When Frank came in. She sprang up,
• 1:16:46
  her face flushed and appealing, her eyes bright and dewy with tears. Frank
• 1:16:51
  thought he had never seen her look so lovely. Oh, Frank, is
• 1:16:55
  it very late? Oh are you angry? She exclaimed timidly. No,
• 1:17:00
  No, dear, of course I'm not angry. But don't you think you'd
• 1:17:03
  better come back? Now? It's nearly eight and everyone is waiting. I've
• 1:17:06
  been trying to coax father to come up and see me, married, said
• 1:17:11
  Rachel. Help me, Frank, you'd better come, sir, said Frank
• 1:17:15
  heartily. I'd like it as much as Rachel would. David Spencer shook his
• 1:17:18
  head stubbornly. No, I can't go to that house. I was locked
• 1:17:23
  out of it. Never mind me. I've had my happiness in this half
• 1:17:26
  hour with my little girl. I'd like to see her married. But it
• 1:17:29
  isn't to be, Yes, it is to be. It shall be,
• 1:17:32
  said Rachel resolutely, And you shall see me married. Frank, I'm going
• 1:17:38
  to be married here in my father's house. That is the right place for
• 1:17:41
  a girl to be married. Go back and tell the guests so, and
• 1:17:44
  bring them all down. Frank looked rather dismayed. David Spencer said depressiousingly,
• 1:17:49
  little girl, don't you think it would be. I'm going to have my
• 1:17:53
  own way in this, said Rachel, with a sort of tender finality.
• 1:17:57
  Go Frank, I'll obey you all my life after, but you must do
• 1:18:00
  this for me. Try to understand, she added, beseechingly. Oh,
• 1:18:05
  I understand, Frank reassured her. Besides, I think you're right. But
• 1:18:10
  I was thinking of your mother. She won't come. Then you tell her
• 1:18:14
  that if she doesn't come, I shan't be married at all, said Rachel.
• 1:18:17
  She was betraying unsuspected ability to manage people. She knew that ultimatum would
• 1:18:24
  urge Frank to his best endeavors. Frank, much to missus Spencer's dismay,
• 1:18:29
  marched boldly in at the front door. Upon his return, she pounced on
• 1:18:32
  him and whisked him out of sight into the supper room. Where's Rachel?
• 1:18:36
  What made you come that way? Everyone saw you. It makes no difference.
• 1:18:41
  They will all have to know anyway. Rachel says she's going to be
• 1:18:44
  married from her father's house or not at all. I've come back to tell
• 1:18:46
  you so. Isabella's face turned crimson. Rachel has gone crazy. I wash
• 1:18:53
  my hands of this affair. Do as you please, take the guests the
• 1:18:56
  supper too, if you can carry it well, I'll come back here for
• 1:18:59
  sir, said Frank, ignoring the sarcasm. Come, missus Spencer, let's
• 1:19:03
  make the best of it. Do you suppose that I am going to David
• 1:19:08
  Spencer's house, said Isabella Spencer violently. Oh you must come, missus Spencer,
• 1:19:13
  cried poor Frank desperately. He began to fear that he would lose his
• 1:19:16
  bride. Past all finding in dismas of triple stubbornness, Rachel says she won't
• 1:19:21
  be married at all if you don't go too. Think of what a talk
• 1:19:25
  it'll make. You know she will keep her word. Isabella Spencer knew it
• 1:19:29
  amid all the conflicts of anger, and revolked in her soul with a strong
• 1:19:31
  desire not to make a worse scandal than must, of necessity be made.
• 1:19:36
  The desire subdued and tamed her as nothing else could have done. I will
• 1:19:41
  go, since I have to, she said icily. What can't be cured
• 1:19:45
  must be endured. Go and tell them. Five minutes later, the sixty
• 1:19:49
  wedding guests were all walking over the fields to the cove, with the minister
• 1:19:54
  and the bridegroom in the front of the procession. They were too amazed even
• 1:19:59
  to talk about the strain happening. Isabella Spencer walked behind, fiercely alone.
• 1:20:03
  They all crowded into the little room of the house at the cove, and
• 1:20:08
  a solemn hush fell over it, broken only by the purr of the sea
• 1:20:11
  wind around it and the croon of the waves on the shore. David Spencer
• 1:20:15
  gave his daughter away, but when the ceremony was concluded, Isabella was the
• 1:20:19
  first to take the girl in her arms. She clasped her and kissed her
• 1:20:25
  with tears streaming down her pale face. All her nature melted in a mother's
• 1:20:30
  tenderness. Rachel, Rachel, my child, I hope and pray that you
• 1:20:33
  may be happy, she said brokenly. In the surge of the suddenly merry
• 1:20:39
  crowd of well wishes around the bride and groom, Isabella was pushed back into
• 1:20:43
  a shadowy corner behind a heap of sails and ropes. Looking up, she
• 1:20:47
  found herself crushed against David Spencer for the first time in twenty years. The
• 1:20:53
  eyes of husband and wife met. A strange thrill shot to Isabella's heart.
• 1:20:59
  She felt he asaf trembling. Isabella. It was David's voice in her ear,
• 1:21:03
  a voice full of tenderness and pleading, the voice of the young wooer
• 1:21:09
  of her girlhood. Is it too late to ask you to forgive me?
• 1:21:12
  I've been as stubborn fool, but there hasn't been an hour in all these
• 1:21:15
  years that I haven't thought about you and our baby and longed for you.
• 1:21:19
  Isabella Spencer had hated this man, yet her hate had been but a parasite
• 1:21:24
  growth on a noblest stem, with no abiding root of its own. It
• 1:21:29
  withered under his words and lo there was the old love, fair and strong
• 1:21:34
  and beautiful as ever, Oh, David, bye was all to blame,
• 1:21:40
  she murmured brokenly. Further words were lost on her husband's lips. When the
• 1:21:45
  hubbub of handshaking and congratulating had subsided, Isabella Spencer stepped out before the company.
• 1:21:51
  She looked almost girlish and brid on herself with her flushed cheeks and bright
• 1:21:57
  eyes. Let's go back now and have supper be sensible, she said,
• 1:22:00
  crisply, Rachel, your father is coming too. He is coming to stay.
• 1:22:05
  With a defied glance around the circle, Calm everybody. They went back
• 1:22:10
  with laughter and raillery over the quiet autumn fields, faintly silvered now by the
• 1:22:15
  moon that was rising over the hills. The young bride and groom lagged behind.
• 1:22:20
  They were very happy, but they were not so happy after all as
• 1:22:24
  the old bride and groom, who walked swiftly in front. Isabella's hand was
• 1:22:29
  in her husband's, and sometimes she could not see the moonlit hills for a
• 1:22:32
  mist of glorified tears. David, she whispered, as he helped her over
• 1:22:38
  the fence, how can you ever forgive me? There's nothing to forgive,
• 1:22:42
  he said, We're only just married. Whoever heard of a bridegroom talking of
• 1:22:45
  forgiveness? Everything is beginning over new for us, my girl. End of
• 1:22:50
  story three. Miss Rosetta Ellis, with her front hair in curl papers and
• 1:22:57
  her back hair bound with a checked apron, was out in her bay side
• 1:23:00
  yard under the furs, shaking her parlor rugs when mister Nathan Patterson drove in.
• 1:23:04
  Miss Rosetta had seen him coming down the long red hill, but she
• 1:23:08
  had not supposed he would be calling at that time of the morning, so
• 1:23:11
  she had not run. Miss Rosetta always ran if anybody called and her front
• 1:23:15
  hair was in curl papers, and though the errand of said caller might be
• 1:23:17
  life or death, he or she had to wait until Miss Rosetta had taken
• 1:23:21
  her hair out. Everybody in Avonlea knew this, because everybody in Avonlea knew
• 1:23:26
  everything about everybody else. But mister Patterson had wheeled into the lane so quickly
• 1:23:30
  and unexpectedly that Miss Rosetta had had no time to run, So, twitching
• 1:23:34
  off the check at apron, she stood her ground as calmly as might be
• 1:23:38
  under the disagreeable consciousness of curl papers. Good morning, miss Alice, said
• 1:23:43
  mister Patterson, so sombrely that Miss Rosetta instantly felt that he was the bearer
• 1:23:47
  of bad news. Usually, mister Patterson's face was as broad and beaming as
• 1:23:50
  the harvest moon. Now his expression was very melancholy, and his voice positively
• 1:23:56
  supulchral. Good mine, returned Miss Rosetta, Chris play and cheerfully. She
• 1:24:00
  at any rate, would not go into eclipse until she knew the reason.
• 1:24:03
  Therefore, it is a fine day, a very fine day, assented mister
• 1:24:09
  Patterson, solemnly. I have just come from the Wheeler place, Miss Alice,
• 1:24:13
  and I regret to say Charlotte is sick, cried Miss Rosetta rapidly.
• 1:24:17
  Charlotte has got another spell with her heart. I knew it. I've been
• 1:24:21
  expecting to hear it. Any woman that drives about the country as much as
• 1:24:27
  she does is liable to heart disease at any moment. I never go outside
• 1:24:31
  my gate, but meet her gadding off somewhere. Goodness knows who looks after
• 1:24:38
  her place. I shouldn't like to trust as much to a hired man as
• 1:24:42
  she does. Well, it is very kind of you, mister Patterson to
• 1:24:45
  put yourself out to the extent of calling to tell me that Charlotte is sick.
• 1:24:49
  But I don't really see why I should take so much trouble. I
• 1:24:54
  really don't. It doesn't matter to me whether Charlotte is sick or whether she
• 1:24:58
  isn't. You no, perfectly well, mister Patterson. If anybody does when
• 1:25:02
  Charlotte went and got married on this s lie to that good for nothing Jacob
• 1:25:06
  Wheeler, missus Wheeler is quite well, interrupted, mister Patterson, desperately quite
• 1:25:13
  well, nothing at all the matter with her. In fact, I only
• 1:25:16
  then, what do you mean by coming here and telling me she wasn't and
• 1:25:20
  frightening me half to death, demanded Miss Rosetta indignantly. My own heart isn't
• 1:25:26
  very strong. It runs in our family, and my doctor warned me to
• 1:25:30
  avoid all shocks and excitement. I don't want to be excited, mister Patterson.
• 1:25:34
  I won't be excited, not even if Charlotte has another spell. It's
• 1:25:39
  perfectly useless for you to try to excite me, mister Patterson, BLUs the
• 1:25:43
  woman. I'm not trying to excite anybody, declared mister Patterson, in exasperation.
• 1:25:48
  I merely called to tell you to tell me what said, Miss Rosetta.
• 1:25:53
  How much longer do you mean to keep me in suspensed? Mister Patterson,
• 1:25:57
  No doubt you have an abundance of spare time. But I have not
• 1:26:01
  that your sister, missus Wheeler, has had a letter from a cousin of
• 1:26:05
  yours, and she's in Charlottetown. Missus Roberts. I think her name is
• 1:26:11
  Jane Roberts broke in, Miss Rosetta. Jane ellis she was before she was
• 1:26:15
  married. What was she writing Charlotte about? Not that I want to know,
• 1:26:19
  of course, I'm not interested in Charlotte's correspondence goodness notes, but if
• 1:26:25
  Jane had anything particular to write about, she should have written to me.
• 1:26:30
  I am the oldest Charlotte has no business to greet a letter from Jane Roberts
• 1:26:33
  without consulting me. It's just like her underhanded ways. She got married the
• 1:26:39
  same way, never said a word to me about it, but just sneaked
• 1:26:42
  off with that unprincipled Jacob Wheeler. Missus Roberts is very ill. I understand
• 1:26:48
  persisted. Mister Patterson nobly resolved to do what he had come to do,
• 1:26:53
  dying In fact, and Jane ill. Jane dying, exclaimed Miss Rosetta.
• 1:26:59
  Why she was the healthiest girl I ever knew. But then I've never seen
• 1:27:02
  her nor heard from her since she got married fifteen years ago. I dare
• 1:27:08
  say her husband was a brute and neglected her, and she's pined away by
• 1:27:12
  slow degrees. I've no faith in husband's Look at Charlotte. Everybody knows how
• 1:27:17
  Jacob Wheeler used her to be sure she deserved it. But missus Roberts's husband
• 1:27:23
  is dead, said mister Pattison, died about two months ago. I understand,
• 1:27:28
  and she has a little baby six months old, and she thought perhaps
• 1:27:31
  missus Wheeler would take it for old time's sake. Did Charlotte ask you to
• 1:27:35
  call and tell me this, demanded Miss Rosetta eagerly. No, she just
• 1:27:41
  told me what was in the letter. She didn't mention you what I thought.
• 1:27:44
  Perhaps you ought to be told. I knew it, said Miss Rosetta,
• 1:27:48
  in a tone of bitter assurance. I could have told you so.
• 1:27:51
  Charlotte wouldn't even let me know that Jane was ill. Charlotte would be afraid
• 1:27:57
  that I would want to get the baby, seeing that Jane and I were
• 1:28:00
  such intimate friends long ago, and who has a better right to it than
• 1:28:03
  me? I should like to know. Ain't I the oldest, and haven't
• 1:28:08
  I experience in bringing up babies? Shart needn't think she is going to run
• 1:28:14
  the affairs of our family just because she happened to get married Jacob Wheeler.
• 1:28:17
  I must be going, said mister Patterson, gathering up his reins. Thankfully.
• 1:28:21
  I am much obliged to you for coming to tell me about Jane,
• 1:28:25
  said Miss Rosetta, even though you have wasted a lot of precious time getting
• 1:28:29
  it out. If it hadn't been for you, I suppose I should never
• 1:28:32
  have known it at all. As it is, I shall start for town
• 1:28:36
  just as soon as I can get ready. You'll have to hurry if you
• 1:28:40
  want to get ahead of missus Wheeler, advised mister Patterson. She's packing her
• 1:28:44
  trunk and going on the morning. Drane, I'll pack a vleise and go
• 1:28:47
  on the afternoon, Chain, retorted Miss Rosetta triumphantly. I'll show Charlotte she
• 1:28:53
  isn't running the Ellis affairs. She married out of them into the Wheelers.
• 1:28:57
  She can attend to them. Jacob wheel was the most but mister Pattison had
• 1:29:01
  driven away. He felt that he had done his duty in the face of
• 1:29:04
  fearful odds, and he did not want to hear anything more about Jacob Wheeller.
• 1:29:09
  Rosetta Ellis and Charlotte Wheeler had not exchanged a word for ten years.
• 1:29:13
  Before that time, they had been devoted to each other, living together in
• 1:29:15
  the Little Ellis Cottage on the White Sands Road, as they had done ever
• 1:29:18
  since their parents death. The trouble began when Jacob Wheeler had commenced to pay
• 1:29:24
  attention to Charlotte, the younger and prettier of two women who had both ceased
• 1:29:28
  to be either very young or very pretty. Rosetta had been bitterly opposed to
• 1:29:31
  the match from the first she vowed she had no use for Jacob Wheeler.
• 1:29:35
  They were not lacking malicious people to hint that this was because the aforesaid Jacob
• 1:29:40
  Wheeler had selected the wrong sister upon whom to bestow his affections. Be that
• 1:29:45
  as it might, Miss Rosetta certainly continued to render the course of Jacob Wheeler's
• 1:29:48
  true love exceedingly rough and tumultuous. The end of it was that Charlotte had
• 1:29:53
  gone quietly away one morning and married Jacob Wheeler without Miss Rosetta's knowing anything about
• 1:29:58
  it. Miss Rosetta had no never forgiven her for it, and Charlotte had
• 1:30:01
  never forgiven the things Rosetta had said to her when she and Jacob returned to
• 1:30:04
  the Ellice cottage. Since then, the sisters had been avowed and open foes,
• 1:30:10
  the only difference being that Miss Rosetta aired her grievances publicly in season and
• 1:30:14
  out of season, while Charlotte was never heard to mention Rosetta's name. Even
• 1:30:17
  the death of Jacob Wheeller five years after the marriage had not healed the breach.
• 1:30:23
  Miss Rosetta took out her curl papers, packed her lise, and caught
• 1:30:26
  the afternoon train for Charlottetown, as she had threatened. All the way there,
• 1:30:29
  she sat rigidly upright in her seat and held imaginary dialogue as Charlotte in
• 1:30:32
  her mind, running something like this on her part. No, Charlotte Wheler,
• 1:30:38
  you are not going to have Jane's baby, and you're very much mistaken
• 1:30:42
  if you think so, All all right, we'll see. You don't know
• 1:30:45
  anything about babies, even if you are married. I do, didn't I
• 1:30:50
  take William Ellis's baby when his wife died. Tell me that, Charlotte Whiller,
• 1:30:56
  and didn't the little thing thrive with me and grew strong and healthy?
• 1:31:00
  Yes, even you have to admit that it did, Charlotteheeler. And yet
• 1:31:03
  you have the presumption to think that you ought to have Jane's baby. Yes,
• 1:31:08
  it is presumption, Charlotte Wheeler. And when William Ellis got married again
• 1:31:12
  and took the baby, didn't the child cling to me and cry as if
• 1:31:15
  I was its real mother? You know it did, Charlotte Wheler. I'm
• 1:31:18
  going to get and keep Jane's baby in spite of you, shot Wheeler.
• 1:31:21
  And I'd like to see you try to prevent me. You that went and
• 1:31:25
  got married and never so much as let your own sister know it. If
• 1:31:30
  I had got married in such a fashion, shout Wheeler, I'd be ashamed
• 1:31:33
  to look anybody in the face with the rest of my natural life. Miss
• 1:31:38
  Rosetta was so interested in thus laying down the law to Charlotte and then planning
• 1:31:41
  out the future life of Jane's baby that she didn't find the Jane to Charlottetown
• 1:31:45
  so long or tedious as she might have expected. Considering her haste, she
• 1:31:48
  soon found her way to the house where her cousin lived. There, to
• 1:31:50
  her dismay and real sorrow, she learned that Missus Roberts had died at four
• 1:31:55
  o'clock that afternoon. She seemed dreadful, anxious to live until she heard from
• 1:31:59
  some of her folks out in Avonlea. Said the woman who gave miss Rosetta
• 1:32:02
  the information she had written to them about her little girl. She was my
• 1:32:05
  sister in law, and she lived with me ever since her husband died.
• 1:32:09
  I've done my best for her, but I have a big family of my
• 1:32:12
  own, and I can't see how I'm to keep the child. Poor Jane
• 1:32:15
  looked and longed for someone to come from Avonlea, but she couldn't hold out.
• 1:32:18
  A patient, suffering creature she was. I'm her cousin, said Miss
• 1:32:24
  Rosetta, wiping her eyes, and I've come for the baby. I'll take
• 1:32:29
  it home with me after the funeral, and if you please, Missus Gordon,
• 1:32:33
  let me see it right away so it can get accustomed to me.
• 1:32:36
  Poor Jane. I should have been here in time to see her. She
• 1:32:41
  and I were such friends long ago. We were far more intimate and confidential
• 1:32:45
  than ever her and Charlotte was. Charlotte knows that too. The vim with
• 1:32:50
  which was Rosetta snapped this out rather amazed missus Gordon, who couldn't understand it's
• 1:32:54
  at all, But she took Miss Rosetta upstairs to the room where the baby
• 1:32:58
  was sleeping. Oh the little dog, Darlene, cried Miss Rosetta, all
• 1:33:01
  her old maidishness and oddity falling away from her like a garment, and all
• 1:33:04
  her innate and denied motherhood shining out in her face like a transforming illumination.
• 1:33:10
  Oh the sweet, dear, pretty little thing. The baby was a darling,
• 1:33:14
  a six months old beauty, with little gold ringlets curling and glistening all
• 1:33:17
  over its tiny head. As Miss Rosetta hung over it, it opened its
• 1:33:21
  eyes and then held out its tiny hands to her with a gurgle of confidence.
• 1:33:25
  Oh you sweetest, said miss Rosetta, rapturously, gathering it up in
• 1:33:29
  her arms. You belong to me, darling, Never never to that underhanded
• 1:33:34
  Charlotte. What is its name, missus Gordon. It wasn't named, said
• 1:33:39
  missus Gordon. Guess you'll have to name it yourself, Miss Alice, Camellia,
• 1:33:43
  Jane said Miss Rosetta, without a moment's hesitation. Jane after its mother,
• 1:33:47
  of course, and I've always thought Camelia the prettiest name in the world.
• 1:33:53
  Sharp would be sure to give it some perfectly heathenist name. I wouldn't
• 1:33:57
  but have passed her, calling the poor, innocent, heedable. Miss Rosetta
• 1:34:00
  decided to stay in Charlottetown until after the funeral. That night, she lay
• 1:34:04
  with the baby on her arm, listening with joy to its soft little breathing.
• 1:34:09
  She did not sleep, or wished to sleep. Her waking fancies were
• 1:34:12
  more alluring than any visions of dreamland. Moreover, she gave a spice to
• 1:34:15
  them by occasionally snapping some vicious sentences out loud at Charlotte. Miss Rosetta fully
• 1:34:20
  expected Charlotte along on the following morning, and girded herself for the fray.
• 1:34:25
  But no Charlotte appeared. Night came, no Charlotte, Another morning, no
• 1:34:30
  Charlotte. Miss Rosetta was hopelessly puzzled. What had happened? Dear, Dear,
• 1:34:35
  had Charlotte taken a bad heart spell on hearing that she Rosetta had stolen
• 1:34:39
  a march on her to Charlottetown. It was quite likely you never knew what
• 1:34:43
  to expect a woman who had married Jacob Wheeler. The truth was that the
• 1:34:46
  very evening Miss Rosetta had left Avonlea. Missus Jacob Wheeler's hired man had broken
• 1:34:50
  his leg and it had to be conveyed to his distant home on a feather
• 1:34:55
  bed in an express wagon. Missus Wheeler could not leave home until she had
• 1:34:58
  obtained another hired man. Consequently, it was the evening after the funeral when
• 1:35:01
  Missus Wheeler whisked up the steps of the Gordon House and met Miss Rosetta,
• 1:35:05
  coming out with a big white bundle in her arms. The eyes of the
• 1:35:09
  two women met defiantly. Miss Rosetta's face wore an air of triumph, chastened
• 1:35:14
  by a remembrance of the funeral that afternoon. Missus Wheeler's face, except for
• 1:35:17
  the eyes, was as expressionless as it usually was. Unlike the tall,
• 1:35:21
  fair fat Miss Rosetta, Missus Wheeler was small and dark and thin, with
• 1:35:26
  an eager, careworn face. How is Jane, she said, abruptly,
• 1:35:30
  breaking the silence of ten years, and saying it, Jane is dead and
• 1:35:33
  buried. Poor thing said Miss Rosetta, calmly. I am taking her baby,
• 1:35:39
  little Camelia Jane home with me. The baby belongs to me, cried
• 1:35:43
  Missus Wheeler, passionately. Jane wrote to me about her. Jane meant that
• 1:35:47
  I should have her. I've come for her. You'll go back without her,
• 1:35:51
  then, said Miss Rosetta, serene in the possession. That is nine
• 1:35:55
  points at the law. The child is mine, as she is going to
• 1:35:58
  stay mine. Make up your mind to that, shouted Wheeler. A woman
• 1:36:02
  who elope to get married isn't fit to be dressed with a baby anyhow,
• 1:36:06
  Jacob Willer. But missus Wheeler had rushed past into the house. Miss Rosetta
• 1:36:11
  composedly stepped into the cab and drove to the station. She fairly bridled with
• 1:36:15
  triumph, and underneath the triumph and a queer undercurrent of satisfaction over the fact
• 1:36:19
  that Charlotte had spoken to her at last. Miss Rosetta would not look at
• 1:36:23
  this satisfaction or give it a name, but it was there. Miss Rosetta
• 1:36:27
  arrived safely back in Avonlea with Camilla Jane, and within ten hours everybody in
• 1:36:30
  the settlement knew the whole story, and every woman who could stand on her
• 1:36:34
  feet, had been up to the Ellice cottage to see the baby. Missus
• 1:36:38
  Wheeler arrived home twenty four hours later and silently betook herself to her farm.
• 1:36:42
  When her Avonlea neighbors sympathized with her and her disappointment, she said nothing,
• 1:36:45
  but looked all the more darkly determined. Also a week later, mister William
• 1:36:50
  J. Blair, the Carmody storekeeper, had an odd tale to tell.
• 1:36:54
  Missus Wheeler had come to the store and bought a lot of fine flannel and
• 1:36:57
  muslin and Valenciennes in the name of time. Did Missus Wheeler want with such
• 1:37:01
  stuff? Mister William J. Blair couldn't make head or tail of it,
• 1:37:04
  and it worried him. Mister Blair was so accustomed to know what everybody brought
• 1:37:09
  anything for that such a mystery quite upset him. Miss Rosetta had exalted in
• 1:37:14
  the possession of little Camilla Jane for a month and had been so happy that
• 1:37:16
  she had almost given up inveighing against Charlotte her conversations. Instead of tending always
• 1:37:21
  to Jacob Wheeler, now ran Camilla Janewood, And this folks thought was an
• 1:37:26
  improvement. One afternoon, Miss Rosetta, leaving Camilla Jane snugly sleeping in her
• 1:37:30
  cradle in the kitchen, had slipped down to the bottom of the garden to
• 1:37:32
  pick her currants. The house was hidden from her sight by a copse of
• 1:37:35
  cherry trees, but she had left the kitchen window open so that she could
• 1:37:39
  hear of the baby awakened and cried. Miss Rosetta sang happily as she picked
• 1:37:43
  her currants for the first time since Charlotte had married Jacob Wheeler. Miss Rosetta
• 1:37:47
  felt really happy, so happy that there was no room in her heart for
• 1:37:50
  bitterness. In fancy, she looked forward to the coming years and saw Camilla
• 1:37:55
  Jane growing up into girlhood, fair and lovable. She'll be a beauty,
• 1:38:00
  reflected Miss Rosetta complacently. Jane was a handsome girl. She shall always be
• 1:38:04
  dressed as nice as I can manage it. And I'll get her an organ
• 1:38:10
  and have her take painting and music lessons parties too. I'll give for a
• 1:38:15
  real coming out party when she's eighteen, in the very prettiest dress that's to
• 1:38:18
  be had. Dear me, I can hardly wait for her to grow up
• 1:38:23
  though she's sweet enough now to make one wish she could stay a baby forever.
• 1:38:28
  When Miss Rosetta returned to the kitchen, her eyes fell on an empty
• 1:38:30
  cradle. Camilla Jane was gone. Miss Rosetta promptly screamed. She understood at
• 1:38:35
  a glance what had happened. Six months old babies did not get out of
• 1:38:39
  their cradles and disappear through closed doors without any assistance. Charlotte has been here,
• 1:38:44
  gasped Miss Rosetta. Charlotte has stolen Camelia Jane. I might have expected
• 1:38:48
  it. I might have known when I heard the story about her buying Muslim
• 1:38:53
  and flannel. It's just like Charlotte to do an underhead trick. But I'll
• 1:38:58
  go after her. I'll show her. She'll find out that she has got
• 1:39:01
  Rosetta ellis to deal with, and no Wheeler like a frantic creature, and
• 1:39:06
  wholly forgetting that her hair was in curl papers. Miss Rosetta hurried up the
• 1:39:10
  hill and down the shore road to the Wheeler Farm, a place she had
• 1:39:13
  never visited in her life. Before the wind was offshore and only broke the
• 1:39:16
  bay's surface into long, silvery ripples and sent sheeny shadows flying out across it
• 1:39:21
  from every point, and headland like transparent wings. The little gray house so
• 1:39:26
  close to the purring waves that in the storms their spray splashed over its very
• 1:39:29
  doorstep seemed deserted. Miss Rosetta pounded lustily on the front door, this producing
• 1:39:34
  no result. She marched around to the back door and knocked. No answer.
• 1:39:39
  Miss Rosetta tried the door. It was locked. Guilty conscience sniffed Miss
• 1:39:44
  Rosetta. Well, I shall stay here until I see that perfidious Charlotte.
• 1:39:49
  If I have to camp in the yard all night, Miss Rosetta was quite
• 1:39:54
  capable of doing this, but she was spared the necessity. Walking boldly up
• 1:39:57
  to the kitchen window and peering through it, she fell her heart swell with
• 1:40:00
  anger as she beheld Charlotte sitting calmly by the table, with Camilla Jane on
• 1:40:04
  her knee. Beside her was a befrilled and muslined cradle, and on a
• 1:40:09
  chair lay the garments in which Miss Rosetta had dressed the baby. It was
• 1:40:12
  clad in an entirely new outfit and seemed quite at home with its new possessor.
• 1:40:16
  It was laughing and cooing and making little dabs at her with its dimpled
• 1:40:19
  hands. Charlotte Wheeller cried Miss Rosetta, tapping sharply on the windowpane. I've
• 1:40:25
  come for that child. Bring her out to me at once. At once,
• 1:40:28
  I say, how dare you come to my house and steal a baby?
• 1:40:31
  You're no better than a common burglar. Give me Camelia Jane, I
• 1:40:35
  say. Charlotte came over to the window with the baby in her arms and
• 1:40:39
  triumph glittering in her eyes. There is no such child as Camilla Jane Hare,
• 1:40:44
  She said, this is Barbara Jane. She belongs to me. With
• 1:40:47
  that, Missus Wheeler pulled down the shade, Miss Rosetta had to go home.
• 1:40:51
  There was nothing else for her to do. On her way, she
• 1:40:55
  met mister Patterson and told him in full the story of her wrongs. It
• 1:40:59
  was all over by night and created quite a sensation. Avonlea had not had
• 1:41:03
  such a toothsome bit of gossip for a long time. Missus Wheeler exulted in
• 1:41:08
  the possession of Barbara Jane for six weeks, during which Miss Rosetta broke her
• 1:41:12
  heart with loneliness and longing, and meditated futile plots for the recovery of the
• 1:41:15
  baby. It was hopeless to think of stealing it back, or she would
• 1:41:18
  have tried to The hired man at the Wheeler place reported that missus Wheeler never
• 1:41:21
  left it night or day for a single moment. She even carried it with
• 1:41:25
  her when she went to milk the cows. Could my turn will come?
• 1:41:29
  Said Miss Rosetta grimly. Camelia Jane's mine, and if she is called Barbara
• 1:41:32
  for a century, it wouldn't alter that fact. Barbara. Indeed, why
• 1:41:38
  not have her called Methuselah and have done with it. One afternoon in October,
• 1:41:43
  when Miss Rosetta was picking her apples and thinking drearily about lost Camilla Jane,
• 1:41:47
  a woman came running breathlessly down the hill and into the yard. Miss
• 1:41:50
  Rosetta gave an exclamation of amazement and dropped her basket of apples of all incredible
• 1:41:56
  things. The woman was Charlotte, Charlotte who had never set foot on the
• 1:41:59
  grounds of the Ellis Cottage since her marriage ten years ago. Charlotte, bare
• 1:42:02
  headed, wild eyed, distraught, wringing her hands and sobbing, Miss Rosetta
• 1:42:08
  flew to mate her. You've scarlet, Camellia Jane to death. She exclaimed,
• 1:42:13
  I always knew you would always expected it. Oh, for heaven's sake,
• 1:42:17
  come, quit, Rosetta gasped Charlotte. Barbara Jane is in convulsions and
• 1:42:24
  I don't know what to do. The hired man has gone for the doctor.
• 1:42:28
  You were the nervous, so I came to you. Jenny White was
• 1:42:31
  there when they came on, so I left her and ran, Oh,
• 1:42:34
  Rosetta, come, come, if you have a spark of humanity in you,
• 1:42:40
  you know what to do for convulsions. You saved that Ella's baby.
• 1:42:44
  Want it's adam. Oh, come and save Barbara Jane. You mean Camelia
• 1:42:47
  Jane, I presume, said Miss Rosetta firmly, in spite of her agitation.
• 1:42:51
  For a second, Charlott Wheeler hesitated, Then she said passionately, Yes,
• 1:42:56
  yes, Camilla Jane, any name you like, only come. Miss
• 1:43:00
  Rosetta went, and not a moment too soon either. The doctor lived eight
• 1:43:03
  miles away, and the baby was very bad. The two women and Jenny
• 1:43:08
  White worked over her for hours. It was not until dark when the baby
• 1:43:11
  was sleeping soundly and the doctor had gone. After telling Miss Rosetta that she
• 1:43:15
  had saved the child's life that a realization of the situation came home to them,
• 1:43:19
  well, said miss Rosetta, dropping into an armchair with a long sigh
• 1:43:23
  of weariness. I guess you'll omit it now, shall Wheeler, that you're
• 1:43:27
  hardly a fit person to have charge of a baby, even if you had
• 1:43:31
  to go and steal it from me. I should think your conscience would reproach
• 1:43:35
  you, that is, in any woman who would marry Jacob Wheeler in such
• 1:43:41
  an underhanded fashion as a I I want the baby, sobbed Charlotte tremulously.
• 1:43:47
  I was so lonely here. I didn't think it was any harm to take
• 1:43:53
  her because Jane gave it to me and her letter. Could you have saved
• 1:43:58
  her life, Rosetta, and you you can have her back. Although it
• 1:44:01
  will break my heart to give her up, But hope, Rosetta, won't
• 1:44:06
  you let me come and see her? Sometimes? I love her, so
• 1:44:11
  I can't bear to give her up entirely. Charlotte said Miss Rosetta firmly.
• 1:44:15
  The most sensible thing for you to do is just to come back with the
• 1:44:20
  baby. You are worried to death trying to run this farm with the debt.
• 1:44:26
  Jacob Willer left on. You sell it and come home with me and
• 1:44:30
  we'll both have the baby. Then. Oh for Asetta, I'd love to
• 1:44:33
  faltered Charlotte. I I wanted to be good friends with you again so much,
• 1:44:41
  but I thought you were so hard and bitter you'd never make up.
• 1:44:45
  Maybe I've talked too much, conceited, miss Rosetta, But you ought to
• 1:44:50
  know me well enough to know that I didn't mean a word of it.
• 1:44:54
  It was your never saying anything no matter what I said, that riled me
• 1:44:58
  up so bad. Bygones, Be bygones and come home, Charlotte, I
• 1:45:02
  will, said Charlotte, resolutely, wiping away her tears. I am sick
• 1:45:06
  of living hair and putting up with a high man. I'll be real glad
• 1:45:10
  to go home or Sessa. And that's the truth. I've had a hard
• 1:45:14
  time. I suppose you'll say i'd served it. I was fond of Jacob,
• 1:45:17
  and of course, of course, why shouldn't you be, said Miss
• 1:45:21
  Rosetta briskly. I'm sure Jacob Wheeler was a good enough soul. If he
• 1:45:27
  was a little slack twisted, I'd like to hear anybody say a word against
• 1:45:31
  him in my presence. Look at that blessed child, Charlotte, isn't she
• 1:45:36
  the sweetest thing? I'm desperate glad you are coming back home, Charlotte.
• 1:45:43
  I've never been able to put up a decent mess of mustard pickles since you
• 1:45:46
  went away, and you are always such a hand with them. We'll be
• 1:45:50
  real snugging cozy again, you and me and little Camellia Barbara Jane end of
• 1:45:58
  story four. A man's heart, I in a woman's too, should be
• 1:46:02
  light in the spring. The spirit of resurrection is abroad, calling the life
• 1:46:09
  of the world out of its wintry grave, knocking with radiant fingers at the
• 1:46:14
  gates of its tomb. It stirs in human hearts and makes them glad with
• 1:46:18
  the old primal gladness they felt in childhood. It quickens human souls and brings
• 1:46:25
  them, if so they will, so close to God that they may clasp
• 1:46:30
  hands with him. It is a time of wonder and renewed life, and
• 1:46:34
  a great outward and inward rapture, as of a young angel softly clapping his
• 1:46:40
  hands for creation's joy. At least so it should be, and so it
• 1:46:46
  always had been with me until the spring, when the dream child first came
• 1:46:51
  into our lives. That year I hated this spring, I who had always
• 1:46:58
  loved it so as boy I had loved it, and as man all the
• 1:47:03
  happiness that had ever been mine, and it was much had come to blossom
• 1:47:08
  in the springtime. It was in the spring that Josephine and I had first
• 1:47:13
  loved each other, or at least had first come into the full knowledge that
• 1:47:17
  we loved. I think we must have loved each other all our lives,
• 1:47:21
  and that each succeeding spring was a word in the revelation of that love,
• 1:47:27
  not to be understood until in the fullness of time the whole sentence was written
• 1:47:31
  out in that most beautiful of all beautiful springs. How beautiful it was,
• 1:47:39
  and how beautiful she was. I suppose every lover thinks that of his last,
• 1:47:45
  otherwise he is a poor sort of lover. But it was not only
• 1:47:48
  my eyes of love that made my dear lovely. She was slim and lithe
• 1:47:54
  as a young, white stemmed birch tree. Her hair was like a soft,
• 1:47:59
  dusky cloud, and her eyes were as blue as avonlea harbor on a
• 1:48:02
  fair twilight, when all the sky is a bloom over it. She had
• 1:48:08
  dark lashes, and a little red mouth that quivered when she was very sad
• 1:48:13
  or very happy, or when she loved very much, quivered like a crimson
• 1:48:17
  rose too rudely shaken by the wind. At such times, what was a
• 1:48:24
  man to do save kiss it? The next spring we were married, and
• 1:48:29
  I brought her home to my gray old homestead on the gray old Harbor shore.
• 1:48:34
  A lonely place for a young bride, said avonlea people. Nay,
• 1:48:40
  it was not so. She was happy here, even in my absences.
• 1:48:45
  She loved the great, restless harbor and the vast, misty sea beyond.
• 1:48:49
  She loved the tides keeping their world old tryst with the shore, and the
• 1:48:55
  gulls, and the croon of the waves, and the call of the winds,
• 1:48:59
  and the woods at noon, And even she loved the moonrises and sunsets,
• 1:49:04
  and the clear, calm nights when the stars seemed to have fallen into
• 1:49:09
  the water, and to be a little dizzy from such a fall. She
• 1:49:14
  loved these things even as I did. No, she was never lonely here.
• 1:49:18
  Then the third spring came and our boy was born. We thought we
• 1:49:25
  had been happy before. Now we knew that we had only dreamed a pleasant
• 1:49:30
  dream of happiness, and had awakened to this exquisite reality. We thought we
• 1:49:35
  had loved each other before. Now, as I looked into my wife's pale
• 1:49:40
  face blanched with its baptism of pain, and met the uplifted gaze of her
• 1:49:46
  blue eyes, aglow with the holy passion of motherhood, I knew we had
• 1:49:51
  only imagined what love might be. The imagination had been sweet, as the
• 1:49:57
  thought of the rose is sweet before the bud is open. But as the
• 1:50:01
  rose to the thought, so was love to the imagination of it. All
• 1:50:05
  My thoughts are poetry since they became. My wife said once rapturously. Our
• 1:50:13
  boy lived for twenty months. He was a sturdy, toddling rogue, so
• 1:50:17
  full of life and laughter and mischief that when he died one day after the
• 1:50:23
  illness of an hour, it seemed a most absurd thing that he should be
• 1:50:27
  dead, a thing I could have laughed at, until belief forced itself into
• 1:50:31
  my soul like a burning, searing iron. I think I grieved over my
• 1:50:38
  little son's death as deeply and sincerely as ever man did or could. But
• 1:50:44
  the heart of the father is not as the heart of the mother. Time
• 1:50:47
  brought no healing to Josephine. She fretted and pined, her cheeks lost their
• 1:50:53
  pretty oval, and her red mouth grew pale and drooping. I hope that
• 1:50:59
  spring might work its miracle upon her. When the buds swelled and the old
• 1:51:02
  earth grew green in the sun, and the gulls came back to the gray
• 1:51:06
  harbor, whose very grayness grew golden and mellow, I thought I should see
• 1:51:12
  her smile again. But when the spring came, came the dream child and
• 1:51:17
  the fear that was to be my companion at bed and board from sunsetting to
• 1:51:23
  sunsetting. One night I awakened from sleep, realizing in the moment of awakening
• 1:51:29
  that I was alone. I listened to hear whether my wife were moving about
• 1:51:33
  the house. I heard nothing but the little splash of waves on the shore
• 1:51:39
  below, and the low moan of the distant ocean. I rose and searched
• 1:51:44
  the house. She was not in it. I did not know where to
• 1:51:47
  seek her, but at a venture, I started along the shore. It
• 1:51:53
  was pale, fainting moonlight. The harbor looked like a phantom harbor, and
• 1:51:59
  the night was as still and cold and calm as the face of a dead
• 1:52:02
  man. At last, I saw my wife coming to me along the shore.
• 1:52:08
  When I saw her, I knew what I had feared, and how
• 1:52:12
  great my fear had been. As she drew near, I saw that she
• 1:52:16
  had been crying. Her face was stained with tears, and her dark hair
• 1:52:20
  hung loose over her shoulders and little glossy ringlets like a child's. She seemed
• 1:52:27
  to be very tired, and at intervals she wrung her small hands together.
• 1:52:32
  She showed no surprise when she met me, but only held out her hands
• 1:52:38
  to me, as if glad to see me. I followed him, but
• 1:52:43
  I could not overtake him, she said, with a sob. I did
• 1:52:46
  my best. I hurried so but he was always a little way ahead,
• 1:52:51
  and that I lost him, And so I came back. But I did
• 1:52:56
  my best, indeed I did. Oh I'm so tired, Josie dearest,
• 1:53:02
  What do you mean? And where have you been? I said, drawing
• 1:53:05
  her close to me. Why did you go out so alone in the night?
• 1:53:12
  She looked at me, wonderingly. How could I help it? David,
• 1:53:16
  he called me, I had to go. Who called you? The
• 1:53:21
  child? She answered in a whisper, Our child, David, our pretty
• 1:53:27
  boy. I awakened in the darkness, and heard him calling me down to
• 1:53:30
  the shore, such a sad, little wailing cry, David, as if
• 1:53:35
  he were cold and lonely and wanted his mother. I hurried out to him,
• 1:53:41
  but I could not find him. I could only hear the call,
• 1:53:45
  and I followed it on and on far down the shore. Oh. I
• 1:53:50
  tried so hard to overtake it, but I could not. Once I saw
• 1:53:56
  a little white hand beckoning to me far ahead in the moon, but still
• 1:54:00
  I could not go fast enough. And then the cry ceased, and there
• 1:54:05
  I was all alone on that terrible, cold, gray shore. I was
• 1:54:11
  so tired, and I came home. But I wish I could have found
• 1:54:15
  him. Perhaps he does not know that I tried to. Perhaps he thinks
• 1:54:20
  his mother never listened to his call. Oh, I would not have him
• 1:54:25
  think that you have had a bad dream, dear, I said. I
• 1:54:30
  tried to say it naturally, but it is hard for a man to speak
• 1:54:32
  naturally when he feels a mortal dread striking into his very vitals with its deadly
• 1:54:39
  chill. It was no dream, she answered, reproachfully. I tell you
• 1:54:45
  I heard him calling me me his mother. What could I do? But
• 1:54:48
  go to him. You cannot understand. You are only his father. It
• 1:54:54
  was not you who gave him birth. It was not you who paid the
• 1:54:57
  price of his dear life and pain. He would not call to you.
• 1:55:01
  He wanted his mother. I got her back to the house and to her
• 1:55:06
  bed, whether she went obediently enough, and soon fell into the sleep of
• 1:55:12
  exhaustion. But there was no more sleep for me that night. I kept
• 1:55:16
  a grim vigil with dread. When I had married Josephine, one of those
• 1:55:23
  officious relatives that are apt to buzz about a man's marriage told me that her
• 1:55:29
  grandmother had been insane all the latter part of her life. She had grieved
• 1:55:33
  over the death of a favorite child until she lost her mind, and as
• 1:55:40
  the first indication of it, she had sought by knights a white dream child
• 1:55:45
  which always called her, so, she said, and led her afar with
• 1:55:49
  a little pale beckoning hand. I had smiled at the story. Then what
• 1:55:56
  had that grim old bygone to do with springtime and love and Josephine? But
• 1:56:02
  it came back to me now, hand in hand with my fear. Was
• 1:56:08
  this fate coming on my dear wife? It was too horrible for belief.
• 1:56:14
  She was so young, so fair, so sweet, this girl wife of
• 1:56:18
  mine. It had been only a bad dream with a frightened, bewildered waking,
• 1:56:26
  So I tried to comfort myself. When she awakened in the morning,
• 1:56:30
  she did not speak of what had happened, and I did not dare to.
• 1:56:35
  She seemed more cheerful that day than she had been, and went about
• 1:56:40
  her household duties briskly and skillfully. My fear lifted. I was sure now
• 1:56:46
  that she had only dreamed, and I was confirmed in my hopeful belief.
• 1:56:51
  When two nights had passed away uneventfully, Then on the third night, the
• 1:56:57
  dream child called to her again. I awakened from a troubled doze to find
• 1:57:02
  her dressing herself with feverish haste. He's calling me, she cried. Don't
• 1:57:09
  you hear him? Can't you hear him? Listen, listen, the little
• 1:57:14
  lonely cry. Yes, yes, my precious mother is coming. Wait for
• 1:57:18
  me, Mother is coming to her. Pretty boy. I caught her hand
• 1:57:24
  and let her leave me where she would. Hand in hand, we followed
• 1:57:28
  the dream child down the harbor shore in that ghostly clouded moonlight. Ever,
• 1:57:33
  she said, the little cry sounded before her. She entreated the dream child
• 1:57:39
  to wait for her. She cried and implored and uttered tender mother talk,
• 1:57:45
  but at last she ceased to hear the cry, and then, weeping wearied,
• 1:57:50
  she let me lead her home again. What a horror brooded over that
• 1:57:56
  spring, That so beautiful spring. It was a time of wonder and marvel,
• 1:58:02
  of the soft touch of silver rain on greening fields, of the incredible
• 1:58:08
  delicacy of young leaves, of blossoms on the land, and blossoms in the
• 1:58:12
  sunset. The whole world bloomed in a flush and tremor of maiden loveliness instinct,
• 1:58:18
  with all the evasive, fleeting charm of spring and girlhood and young morning.
• 1:58:26
  And almost every night of this wonderful time, the dream child called his
• 1:58:30
  mother, and we rove the gray shore in quest of him. In the
• 1:58:34
  day she was herself, but when the night fell she was restless and uneasy
• 1:58:40
  until she heard the call, then, follow which she would even through storm
• 1:58:45
  and darkness. It was then she said that the cry sounded loudest and nearest,
• 1:58:50
  as if her pretty boy were frightened by the tempest. What wild,
• 1:58:56
  terrible rovings we had, She straining forward eager to overtake the dream child,
• 1:59:02
  eyes sick at heart, following guiding, protecting as best I could, then
• 1:59:08
  afterwards leading her gently home, heart broken because she could not reach the child.
• 1:59:15
  I bore my burden in secret, determining that gossip should not busy itself
• 1:59:19
  with my wife's condition, so long as I could keep it from becoming known.
• 1:59:25
  We had no near relatives, none with any right to share any trouble,
• 1:59:30
  and whoso accepteth human love must bind it to his soul with pain.
• 1:59:34
  I thought, however, that I should have medical advice, and I took
• 1:59:39
  our old doctor into my confidence. He looked grave when he heard my story.
• 1:59:44
  I did not like his expression, nor his few guarded remarks. He
• 1:59:49
  said he thought human aid would avail little. She might come all right in
• 1:59:55
  time, Humor her as far as possible, watch over her, protect her.
• 2:00:00
  He needed not to tell me that the spring went out and summer came
• 2:00:06
  in, and the horror deepened and darkened. I knew that suspicions were being
• 2:00:13
  whispered from lip to lip. We had been seen on our nightly quests.
• 2:00:17
  Men and women began to look at us pityingly. When we went abroad one
• 2:00:24
  day in a dull, drowsy afternoon, the dream child called. I knew
• 2:00:30
  then that the end was near. The end had been near in the old
• 2:00:33
  grandmother's case sixty years before. When the dream child called in the day,
• 2:00:40
  the doctor looked graver than ever when I told him and said that the time
• 2:00:44
  had come when I must have help in my task. I could not watch
• 2:00:48
  by day and night. Unless I had assistance, I would break down.
• 2:00:54
  I did not think that I should love is stronger than that, And on
• 2:00:59
  one thing I was determined. They should never take my wife from me.
• 2:01:03
  No restraint sterner than a husband's loving hand should ever be put upon her,
• 2:01:10
  my pretty, piteous darling. I never spoke of the dream child to her.
• 2:01:15
  The doctor advised against it, he said, only served to deepen the
• 2:01:19
  delusion. When he hinted at an asylum. I gave him a look that
• 2:01:25
  would have been a fierce word for another man. He never spoke of it
• 2:01:29
  again. One night in August there was a dull, murky sunset after a
• 2:01:35
  dead, breathless day of heat, with not a wind stirring. The sea
• 2:01:42
  was not blue as a sea should be, but pink, all pink,
• 2:01:46
  A ghastly, staring painted pink. I lingered on the harbor shore below the
• 2:01:53
  house until dark. The evening bells were rigging faintly and mournfully in a church
• 2:01:59
  across the harbor. Behind me. In the kitchen, I heard my wife
• 2:02:02
  singing sometimes now her spirits were fitfully high, and then she would sing the
• 2:02:09
  old songs of her girlhood. But even in her singing was something strange,
• 2:02:14
  as if a wailing, unearthly cry rang through it. Nothing about her was
• 2:02:19
  sadder than that strange singing. When I went back to the house, the
• 2:02:25
  rain was beginning to fall, but there was no wind or sound in the
• 2:02:28
  air, only the dismal stillness, as if the world were holding its breath
• 2:02:33
  in expectation of a calamity. Josie was standing by the window, looking out
• 2:02:40
  and listening. I tried to induce her to go to bed, but she
• 2:02:44
  only shook her head. I might fall asleep and not hear him when he
• 2:02:46
  called. She said, I am always afraid to sleep now, for fear
• 2:02:51
  he should call and his mother to hear him. Knowing it was of no
• 2:02:57
  use to entreat, I sat down by the table and tried to read.
• 2:03:01
  Three hours passed on. When the clock struck midnight, she started up with
• 2:03:06
  a wild light in her sunken blue eyes. He is calling, she cried,
• 2:03:14
  calling out there in the storm. Yes, yes, feet, I
• 2:03:16
  am coming. She opened the door and fled down the path to the shore.
• 2:03:21
  I snatched a lantern from the wall, lighted it, and followed.
• 2:03:27
  It was the blackest night I was ever out in dark, with the very
• 2:03:31
  darkness of death. The rain fell thickly and heavily. I overtook Josie,
• 2:03:38
  caught her hand, and stumbled along in her wake, for she went with
• 2:03:42
  the speed and recklessness of a distraught woman. We moved in the little flitting
• 2:03:48
  circle of light shed by the lantern. All around us and above us was
• 2:03:54
  a horrible, voiceless darkness, held as it were, at bay by the
• 2:03:59
  friendly light. If only I could overtake him, once, moaned Josie.
• 2:04:05
  If I could just kiss him once and hold him close against my aching heart,
• 2:04:11
  this pain that never leaves me would leave me. Then, Oh,
• 2:04:15
  my pretty boy, wait for mother. I am coming to you. Listen,
• 2:04:18
  David, he cries, he cries, so pitifully, listen. Can
• 2:04:24
  you hear it? I did hear it, clear and distinct, out of
• 2:04:29
  the deadly still darkness before us, came a faint wailing cry. What was
• 2:04:35
  it? Was I too going mad? Or was there something out there,
• 2:04:42
  something that cried and moaned, longing for human love, yet ever retreating from
• 2:04:47
  human footsteps. I am not a superstitious man, but my nerve had been
• 2:04:53
  shaken by my long trial, and I was weaker than I thought. Terror
• 2:04:59
  took possession of me, Terror unnameable. I trembled in every limb, clammy,
• 2:05:04
  Perspiration oozed from my forehead. I was possessed by a wild impulse to
• 2:05:11
  turn and flee anywhere away from that unearthly cry. But Josephine's cold hand gripped
• 2:05:17
  mind firmly and led me on. That strange cry still rang in my ears,
• 2:05:24
  but it did not recede. It sounded clearer and stronger. It was
• 2:05:30
  a whale, but a loud, insistent wail. It was nearer, nearer.
• 2:05:35
  It was in the darkness, just beyond us. Then we came to
• 2:05:40
  it. A little dory had been beached on the pebbles and left there by
• 2:05:44
  the receding tide. There was a child in it, a boy of perhaps
• 2:05:48
  two years old, who crouched in the bottom of the dory in water to
• 2:05:53
  his waist, his big blue eyes wild and wide with terror, his face
• 2:05:59
  white and tears stained. He wailed again when he saw us and held out
• 2:06:03
  his little hands. My horror fell away from me like a discarded garment.
• 2:06:10
  This child was living. How had he come? Thence, whence? And
• 2:06:15
  why? I did not know, and in my state of mind did not
• 2:06:18
  question. It was no cry of parted spirit I had heard. That was
• 2:06:24
  enough for me, Old, poor darling, cried my wife. She stooped
• 2:06:30
  over the dory and lifted the baby in her arms. His long, fair
• 2:06:33
  curls fell on her shoulder. She laid her face against his and wrapped her
• 2:06:39
  shawl around him. Let me carry him, dear, I said, he
• 2:06:44
  is very wet and too heavy for you. No, no, I must
• 2:06:47
  carry him. My arms have been so empty they are full Now, Oh
• 2:06:53
  David, the pain at my heart has gone. He has come to me
• 2:06:56
  to take the place of my own. God has sent him to me out
• 2:07:00
  of the sea. He is wet and cold and tired. Hush, sweet
• 2:07:03
  one, we will go home. Silently. I followed her home. The
• 2:07:09
  wind was rising, coming in sudden, angry gusts. The storm was at
• 2:07:14
  hand, but we reached shelter before It broke just as I shut our door
• 2:07:17
  behind us. It smote the house with the roar of a baffled beast.
• 2:07:23
  I thank god that we were not out in it. Following the dream child,
• 2:07:29
  you are very wet, Josie, I said, go and put on
• 2:07:31
  dry clothes at once. The child must be looked to first, she said,
• 2:07:36
  firmly. See how chilled and exhausted he is. The pretty dear light
• 2:07:42
  a fire. Quickly, David, while I get dry things for him.
• 2:07:45
  I let her have her way. She brought out the clothes our own child
• 2:07:50
  had worn, and dressed the waif in them, rubbing his chilled limbs,
• 2:07:56
  brushing his wet hair, laughing over him, mothering him. She seemed like
• 2:08:01
  her old self. For my own part, I was bewildered. All the
• 2:08:05
  questions I had not asked before came crowding to my mind. Now whose child
• 2:08:13
  was this? Whence had he come? What was the meaning of it all?
• 2:08:16
  He was a pretty baby, fair and plump and rosy. When he
• 2:08:22
  was dried and fed, he fell asleep in Josie's arms. She hung over
• 2:08:28
  him in a passion of delight. It was with difficulty I persuaded her to
• 2:08:33
  leave him. Long enough to change her wet clothes. She never asked whose
• 2:08:37
  he might be or from where he might have come. He had been sent
• 2:08:41
  to her from the sea. The dream Child had led her to him.
• 2:08:46
  That was what she believed. I dared not throw any doubt on that belief.
• 2:08:52
  She slept that night with the baby on her arm, and in her
• 2:08:54
  sleep her face was the face of a girl in her youth, untroubled,
• 2:09:00
  unworn. I expected that tomorrow would bring someone seeking the baby. I had
• 2:09:05
  come to the conclusion that he must belong to the cove across the harbor where
• 2:09:11
  the fishing hamlet was. And all day, while Josie laughed and played with
• 2:09:16
  them, I waited and listened for the footsteps of those who had come seeking
• 2:09:20
  him. But they did not come. Day after day passed, and still
• 2:09:26
  they did not come. I was in a maze of perplexity. What should
• 2:09:31
  I do? I shrank from the thought of the boy being taken away from
• 2:09:35
  us since we had found him. The dream child had never called. My
• 2:09:41
  wife seemed to have turned back from the dark borderland where her feet had strayed,
• 2:09:46
  to walk again with me in our own homely paths day and night.
• 2:09:52
  She was her old bright, self happy, and serene in the new motherhood
• 2:09:56
  that had come to her. The only things the range in her was calm
• 2:10:01
  acceptance of the event. She never wondered who or whose the child might be,
• 2:10:07
  never seemed to fear that he would be taken from her, and she
• 2:10:11
  gave him our dream child's name. At last, when a full week had
• 2:10:16
  passed, I went in my bewilderment to our old doctor. A most extraordinary
• 2:10:22
  thing, he said, thoughtfully, The child, as you say, must
• 2:10:26
  belong to the Spruce Cove people. Yet it is an almost unbelievable thing that
• 2:10:31
  there has been no search or inquiry after him. Probably there is some simple
• 2:10:37
  explanation of the mystery. However, I advise you to go over to the
• 2:10:39
  cove and inquire. When you find the parents or guardians of the child,
• 2:10:45
  ask them to allow you to keep it for a time. It may prove
• 2:10:48
  your wife's salvation. I have known such cases. Evidently, on that night,
• 2:10:52
  the crisis of her mental disorder was reached, a little thing might have
• 2:10:56
  sufficed to turn her feet either way back to insanity or into deeper darkness.
• 2:11:03
  It is my belief that the former has occurred, and that if she has
• 2:11:05
  left in an undisturbed possession of this child for a time, she will recover
• 2:11:09
  completely. I drove around the harbor that day with a lighter heart than I
• 2:11:15
  had hoped ever to possess again. When I reached Spruce Cove, the first
• 2:11:20
  person I met was Old Abel Blair. I asked him if any child were
• 2:11:24
  missing from the cove or along shore. He looked at me and surprised,
• 2:11:28
  shook his head and said he had not heard of any. I told him
• 2:11:33
  as much of the tale as was necessary, leaving him to think that my
• 2:11:37
  wife and I had found the dory and a small passenger during an ordinary walk
• 2:11:43
  along the shore. A grain dory, he exclaimed, Ben forbes, old
• 2:11:48
  grain dory has been missing for a week, but it was so rotten and
• 2:11:50
  lacky that he didn't bother looking for it. But this child, Sir,
• 2:11:54
  it bates me. What might he be like? I described the child as
• 2:11:58
  cloth as possible. That fits little Harry Martin to a hare, said Old
• 2:12:05
  Abel, perplexedly. But Sir, it can't be, or if it is,
• 2:12:09
  there's been foul work somewhere. James Martin's wife died last winter, sir,
• 2:12:13
  and he died the next month. They left a baby in not much
• 2:12:16
  else. There weren't nobody to take the child but Jim's half sister, Maggie
• 2:12:20
  Fleming. She lived here at the cove, and I'm sorry to say so.
• 2:12:24
  She hadn't too good a name. She didn't want to be bothered with
• 2:12:26
  the baby, and folks say she neglected him scandalous. Well. Last spring
• 2:12:31
  she begun talking of going away to the States. She said a friend of
• 2:12:35
  hers had got her a good place in Boston, and she was going to
• 2:12:37
  go and take little Harry. We suppose it was all right. Last Saturday
• 2:12:41
  she went, sir, she was going to walk to the station, and
• 2:12:45
  the last scene of her she was trudging along the road carrying the baby.
• 2:12:48
  It hasn't been thought of since, But sir, do you suppose she's set
• 2:12:52
  that innocent child adrift in that old leaky dory to send him to his death.
• 2:12:56
  I knew Maggie was no better than she should be, but I can't
• 2:12:58
  believe she was as bad as that. You must come over with me and
• 2:13:03
  see if you can identify the child. I said, If he is Harry
• 2:13:07
  Martin, I shall keep him. My wife has been very lonely since our
• 2:13:11
  baby died, and she has taken a fancy to this little chap. When
• 2:13:16
  we reached my home, old Abel recognized the child as Harry Martin. He
• 2:13:22
  is with us still. His baby hands led my dear wife back to health
• 2:13:26
  and happiness. Other children have come to us. She loves them all dearly.
• 2:13:33
  But the boy who bears her dead son's name is to her ay and
• 2:13:37
  to me as dear as if she had given him birth. He came from
• 2:13:41
  the sea, and at his coming, the ghostly dream child fled never more
• 2:13:46
  to lure my wife away from me with its exciting cry. Therefore I look
• 2:13:52
  upon him and love him as my first born. End of story five.
• 2:14:00
  The Monroe family were holding a Christmas reunion at the Old Prince Edward Island Homestead
• 2:14:05
  at White Sands. It was the first time they had all been together under
• 2:14:09
  one roof since the death of their mother thirty years before. The idea of
• 2:14:13
  this Christmas reunion had originated with Edith Monroe the preceding spring, during her tedious
• 2:14:18
  convalescence from a bad attack of pneumonia among strangers in an American city, where
• 2:14:22
  she had not been able to fill her concert engagements and had more spare time
• 2:14:26
  in which to feel the tug of old ties and the homesick longing for her
• 2:14:28
  own people than she had had for years. As a result, when she
• 2:14:33
  recovered, she wrote to her second brother, James Monroe, who lived on
• 2:14:37
  the homestead, and the consequence was this gathering of the Monroes under the old
• 2:14:41
  roof tree. Ralph Monroe for once laid aside the cares of his railroads and
• 2:14:46
  the deceitfulness of his millions in Toronto, and took the long promised, long
• 2:14:50
  deferred trip to the homeland. Malcholm Monroe journeyed from the far Western University of
• 2:14:54
  which he was president Edith came, flushed with the triumph of her latest and
• 2:14:58
  most successful concert tour. Missus Woodburn, who had been Margaret Monroe, came
• 2:15:03
  from the Nova Scotia town where she lived the busy, happy life as the
• 2:15:07
  wife of a rising young lawyer. James, prosperous and hertie greeted them warmly
• 2:15:11
  at the old homestead, whose fertile acres had well repaid his skillful management.
• 2:15:16
  They were a merry party, casting aside their cares and years, and HARKing
• 2:15:20
  back to joyous boyhood and girlhood once more. James had a family of rosy
• 2:15:26
  lads and lasses. Margaret brought her two blue eyed little girls. Ralph's dark,
• 2:15:30
  clever looking son accompanied him, and Malcolm brought his, a young man
• 2:15:35
  with a resolute face in which there was less of boyishness than in his father's,
• 2:15:39
  and the eyes of a keen, perhaps a hard bargainer. The two
• 2:15:41
  cousins were the same age to a day, and it was a family joke
• 2:15:45
  among the Monros that the stalk must have mixed the babies, since Ralph's son
• 2:15:48
  was like Malcolm in face and brain, while Malcolm's boy was a second edition
• 2:15:52
  of his uncle Ralph. To crown all, aunt Isabel came to a talkative,
• 2:15:56
  clever, shrewd old lady as young as at eighty five as she had
• 2:16:01
  been at thirty, thinking the Monroe stock the best in the world, and
• 2:16:03
  beamingly proud of her nephews and nieces who had gone out from this humble little
• 2:16:07
  farm to destinies of such brilliance and influence in the world beyond. I've forgotten
• 2:16:13
  Robert. Robert Monroe was apt to be forgotten, although he was the oldest
• 2:16:18
  of the family. White Sand's people in naming over the various members of the
• 2:16:20
  Monroe family would add, and Robert in a tone of surprise over the remembrance
• 2:16:26
  of his existence. He lived on a poor, sandy little farm down by
• 2:16:28
  the shore, but he had come up to James's place on the evening when
• 2:16:33
  the guests arrived. They had all greeted him warmly and joyously, and then
• 2:16:37
  did not think about him again in their laughter and conversation. Robert sat back
• 2:16:41
  in a corner and listened with a smile, but he never spoke. Afterwards,
• 2:16:45
  he had slipped noiselessly away and gone home, and nobody noticed his going.
• 2:16:48
  They were all gayly busy recalling what had happened in the old times and
• 2:16:52
  telling what had happened in the new. Edith recounted the successes of her concert
• 2:16:56
  tours. Malcolm expatiated proudly on his plans for developing his beloved college. Ralph
• 2:17:01
  described the country through which his new railroad ran and the difficulties he had had
• 2:17:07
  to overcome in connection with it. James, aside, discussed his orchard and
• 2:17:11
  his crops with Margaret, who had not been long enough away from the farm
• 2:17:13
  to lose touch with its interests. Aunt Isabel knitted and smiled complacently on all,
• 2:17:18
  talking now with one, now with the other, secretly quite proud of
• 2:17:22
  herself that she, an old woman of eighty five, who had seldom been
• 2:17:26
  out of White Sands in her life, could discuss high finance with Ralph,
• 2:17:28
  and higher education with Malcolm, and hold her own with James an argument on
• 2:17:33
  drainage. The White Sands school teacher, an arch eyed, redmouthed bit of
• 2:17:37
  a girl, a Bell from Avonlea, who boarded with the James Munrose amused
• 2:17:41
  herself with the boys. All were enjoying themselves hugely. So it is not
• 2:17:46
  to be wondered that it not Miss Robert, who had gone home early because
• 2:17:48
  his old housekeeper was nervous if left alone at night. He came again the
• 2:17:52
  next afternoon from James in the barnyard. He learned that Malcolm and Ralph had
• 2:17:58
  driven to the harbor, that Mark and Missus James had gone to call on
• 2:18:01
  friends in Avonlea, and that Edith was walking somewhere in the woods on the
• 2:18:03
  hill. There was nobody in the house except Aunt Isabel and the teacher.
• 2:18:07
  You'd better weed and steady evening, said James, indifferently. Dull, I'll
• 2:18:13
  be back song. Robert went across the yard and sat down on the rustic
• 2:18:16
  bench in the angle of the front porch. It was a fine December evening,
• 2:18:20
  as mild as autumn. There had been no snow, and the long
• 2:18:22
  fields sloping down from the homestead were brown and mellow. A weird, dreamy
• 2:18:28
  stillness had fallen upon the purple earth, the windless woods, the rain of
• 2:18:31
  the valleys, the sea meadows. Nature seemed to have folded, satisfied hands
• 2:18:35
  to rest, knowing that her long wintry slumber was coming upon her. Out
• 2:18:41
  to sea, a dull red sunset faded into somber clouds, and the ceaseless
• 2:18:45
  voice of many waters came up from the tawny shore. Robert rested his chin
• 2:18:48
  on his hand and looked across the vales and hills, where the feathery gray
• 2:18:52
  of leafless hardwoods was mingled with the sturdy, unfailing green of the cone bearers.
• 2:18:58
  He was a tall, bent man, with thin gray hair, a
• 2:19:01
  lined face, and deeply set, gentle brown eyes, the eyes of one
• 2:19:05
  who, looking through pain, sees rapture beyond. He felt very happy.
• 2:19:09
  He loved his family clannishly, and he was rejoiced that they were all again
• 2:19:13
  near to him. He was proud of their success and fame. He was
• 2:19:16
  glad that James had prospered so well of late years. There was no canker
• 2:19:20
  of envy or discontent in his soul. He heard absently indistinct voices at the
• 2:19:24
  open hall window above the porch where aunt Isabel was talking to Kathleen Bell.
• 2:19:28
  Presently. Aunt Isabel moved nearer to the window, and her words came down
• 2:19:33
  to Robert with startling clearness. Yes, I can assure you, miss Bell,
• 2:19:37
  that I'm real proud of my nephews and nieces. They're a smart family.
• 2:19:41
  They've almost all done well, and they hadn't any of them much to
• 2:19:45
  begin with. Ralph had absolutely nothing, and to dare he is a millionaire.
• 2:19:50
  Their father met with so many losses, what with his ill help and
• 2:19:54
  the bare failing that he couldn't help them. Annie, But they've all succeeded,
• 2:19:58
  except poor Robert, and I must admit that he is a total failure.
• 2:20:05
  Oh no, no, said the little teacher, deprecatingly, A total
• 2:20:09
  failure. Aunt Isabel repeated her words emphatically. She was not going to be
• 2:20:13
  contradicted by anybody, least of all a bell from Avonlea. He has been
• 2:20:18
  a failure since the time he was born. He is the first Monroe to
• 2:20:22
  disgrace the old stock in that way. I'm sure his brothers and sisters must
• 2:20:26
  be dreadfully ashamed of him. He has lived sixty years and hasn't done a
• 2:20:31
  thing worth while. He can't even make his farm pay if he's kept out
• 2:20:35
  of debt. It's as much as he's ever meant to do. Some men
• 2:20:39
  can't even do that, murmured the little school teacher. She was really so
• 2:20:43
  much in awe of this imperious, clever old aunt Isabel, that it was
• 2:20:46
  positive heroism on her part to venture even this faint protest. More, it's
• 2:20:50
  expected of a Monroe, said aunt Isabel majestically. Robert Munroe is a failure,
• 2:20:56
  and that is the only name for him. Robert Monroe stood up below
• 2:21:01
  the window in a dizzy, uncertain fashion. Aunt Isabel had been speaking of
• 2:21:05
  him. He Robert was a failure, a disgrace to his blood, of
• 2:21:09
  whom his nearest and dearest were ashamed. Yes, it was true. He
• 2:21:13
  had never realized it before. He had known that he could never win power
• 2:21:16
  or accumulate riches, but he had not thought that mattered much. Now,
• 2:21:20
  through aunt Isabel's scornful eyes, he saw himself as the world saw him,
• 2:21:24
  as his brothers and sisters must see him. There lay the sting. What
• 2:21:28
  the world thought of him did not matter, but that his own should think
• 2:21:31
  him of failure and disgrace was agony, he moaned as he started to walk
• 2:21:37
  across the yard, only anxious to hide his pain and shame away from all
• 2:21:41
  human sight. And in his eyes was the look of a gentle animal which
• 2:21:45
  had been stricken by a cruel and unexpected blow. Edith Monroe, who unaware
• 2:21:48
  Robert's proximity, had been standing on the other side of the porch, saw
• 2:21:52
  that look as he hurried past her, unseeing. A moment before, her
• 2:21:56
  dark eyes had been flashing with anger at aunt Isabel's words. Now that anger
• 2:22:00
  was drowned in a sudden rush of tears. She took a quick step after
• 2:22:03
  Robert, but checked the impulse. Not then, and not by her alone,
• 2:22:07
  could that deadly hurt be healed. Nay more, Robert must never suspect
• 2:22:13
  that she knew of any hurt. She stood and watched him through her tears
• 2:22:16
  as he went away, across the low lying shore fields to hide his broken
• 2:22:18
  heart under his own humble roof. She yearned to hurry after him and comfort
• 2:22:24
  him, but she knew that comfort was not what Robert needed now. Justice
• 2:22:28
  and justice only could pluck out the sting which otherwise must rankle to the death.
• 2:22:33
  Ralph and Malcolm were driving into the yard. Edith went over to them,
• 2:22:37
  boys, She said resolutely, I want to have a talk with you.
• 2:22:41
  The Christmas dinner at the old Homestead was a merry one. Missus James
• 2:22:46
  spread a feast that was fit for the halls of Lucollis. Laughter, jest
• 2:22:48
  and repartee flew from lip to lip. Nobody appeared to notice that Robert ate
• 2:22:52
  little said nothing and sat with his form shrinking in his shabby best suit,
• 2:22:58
  his gray head bent even lower than you usual, as if desirous of avoiding
• 2:23:01
  all observation. When the others spoke to him, he answered deprecatingly, and
• 2:23:05
  shrank still further into himself. Finally all had eaten all they could, and
• 2:23:09
  the remainder of the plumb pudding was carried out. Robert gave a low sigh
• 2:23:13
  of relief. It was almost over. Soon he would be able to escape
• 2:23:18
  and hide himself and his shame away from the mirthful eyes of these men and
• 2:23:22
  women who had earned the right to laugh at the world in which their success
• 2:23:24
  gave them power and influence. He he only was a failure, he wondered
• 2:23:31
  impatiently. While Missus James did not rise, Missus James merely leaned comfortably back
• 2:23:35
  in her chair with the righteous expression of one who has done her duty by
• 2:23:39
  her fellow creature's palets, and looked at Malcolm. Malcolm rose in his place.
• 2:23:43
  Silence fell on the company. Everybody looked suddenly alert and expectant, except
• 2:23:48
  Robert, he sat with bowed head, wrapped in his own bitterness. I
• 2:23:52
  have been told that I must lead off, said Malcolm, because I am
• 2:23:56
  supposed to possess the gift of gab. But if I do, I am
• 2:24:01
  not going to use it for any rhetorical effect. To day, simple earnest
• 2:24:07
  words must express the deepest feelings of the heart in doing justice to its own
• 2:24:13
  brothers and sisters. We meet to day under our own roof tree, surrounded
• 2:24:18
  by the benedictions of the past years. Perhaps invisible guests are here, the
• 2:24:26
  spirits of those who founded this home and whose work on earth has long been
• 2:24:30
  finished. It is not amiss to hope that this is so, and our
• 2:24:35
  family circle made indeed complete. To each one of us who are here in
• 2:24:39
  visible bodily presence, some measure of success has fallen, but only one of
• 2:24:46
  us has been supremely successful in the only things that really count, the things
• 2:24:50
  account for eternity, as well as time, sympathy, and unselfishness and self
• 2:24:56
  sacrifice. I shall tell you my own story for the benefit of those who
• 2:25:01
  have not heard it. When I was a lad of sixteen, I started
• 2:25:05
  to work out my own education. Some of you will remember that old mister
• 2:25:11
  Blair of Avonlea offered me a place in his store for the summer, at
• 2:25:13
  wages which would go far towards paying my expenses at the Country Academy. The
• 2:25:18
  next winter, I went to work, eager and hopeful. All summer I
• 2:25:24
  tried to do my faithful best for my employer. In September, the blow
• 2:25:28
  fell. A sum of money was missing from mister Blair's till I was suspected
• 2:25:33
  and discharged in disgrace. All my neighbors believed me guilty. Even some of
• 2:25:39
  my own family looked upon me with suspicion, nor could I blame them for
• 2:25:45
  the circumstantial evidence was strongly against me. Ralph and James looked ashamed. Edith
• 2:25:50
  and Margaret, who had not been born at the time referred to, lifted
• 2:25:52
  their faces innocently. Robert did not move or glance up. He hardly seemed
• 2:25:56
  to be listening. I was crushed in an agony of shame and despair,
• 2:26:01
  continued Malcolm. I believed my career was ruined. I was spent on casting
• 2:26:07
  all my ambitions behind me and going west to some place where nobody knew me
• 2:26:13
  or my disgrace. But there was one person who believed my innocence, who
• 2:26:18
  said to me, you shall not give up. You shall not behave as
• 2:26:22
  if you were guilty. You are innocent, and in time your innocence will
• 2:26:26
  be proved. Meanwhile, show yourself a man. You have nearly enough to
• 2:26:33
  pay your way next winter at the academy. I have a little I can
• 2:26:35
  give to help you out. Don't give in, Never give in when you
• 2:26:41
  have done no wrong. I listened and took his advice. I went to
• 2:26:46
  the academy. My story was there as soon as I was, and I
• 2:26:50
  found myself sneered at and shunned many a time. I would have given up
• 2:26:54
  in despair had it not been for the encouragement of my counselor. He furnished
• 2:26:58
  the back bone for me. I was determined that his belief in me should
• 2:27:03
  be justified. I studied hard and came out at the head of my class.
• 2:27:07
  Then there seemed to be no chance of my earning any more money that
• 2:27:11
  summer, but a farmer at Newbridge, who cared nothing about the character of
• 2:27:16
  his help if he could get the work out of him, offered to hire
• 2:27:20
  me. The prospect was distasteful, but urged by the man who believed in
• 2:27:24
  me, I took the place and endured the hardships. Another winter of lonely
• 2:27:30
  work passed at the academy. I won the Feral scholarship the last year it
• 2:27:33
  was offered, and that meant an arts course for me. I went to
• 2:27:37
  Redmond College. My story was not openly known there, but something of it
• 2:27:43
  got abroad enough to taint my life there also with its suspicion. But the
• 2:27:48
  year I graduated, mister Blair's nephew, who as you know, was the
• 2:27:52
  real culprit, confessed his guilt and I was cleared before the world. Since
• 2:27:58
  then my career has been what has called all the brilliant one. But Malcolm
• 2:28:01
  turned and laid his hand on Robert's thin shoulder. All of my success I
• 2:28:05
  owe to my brother Robert. It is his success, not mine. And
• 2:28:11
  here today, since we have agreed to say what is too often left to
• 2:28:13
  be said over a coffin lid, I thank him for all he did for
• 2:28:18
  me, and tell him that there is nothing I am more proud of and
• 2:28:22
  thankful for than such a brother. Robert had looked up at last, amazed,
• 2:28:26
  bewildered, incredulous his face crimsoned as Malcolm sat down. But now Ralph
• 2:28:31
  was getting up. I am no ora chair as Malcolm is, he quoted
• 2:28:35
  Kayley. But I've got a story to tell too, which only one of
• 2:28:39
  you knows. Forty years ago, when I started in life as a businessman,
• 2:28:46
  money wasn't so plentiful with me as it may be today, and I
• 2:28:50
  needed it badly. A chance came my way to make a pile of it.
• 2:28:56
  It wasn't a clean chance. It was a dirty chance. It looked
• 2:29:01
  square on the surface, but underneath it meant trickery and roguery. I hadn't
• 2:29:07
  enough perception to see that, though I was fool enough to think it was
• 2:29:11
  all right. I had told Robert what I meant to do, and Robert
• 2:29:16
  saw clear and through the outward sham to the real hideous thing underneath. He
• 2:29:22
  showed me what it meant, and gave me a preachment about a few Monroe
• 2:29:26
  traditions of truth and honor. I saw what I had been about to do
• 2:29:31
  as he saw it, as all good men and true must see it.
• 2:29:35
  And I vowed then and there that I'd never go into anything that I wasn't
• 2:29:39
  sure was fair and square and clean. Through and through, I've kept that
• 2:29:43
  bow. I'm a rich man, and not a dollar of my money is
• 2:29:48
  tainted money. But I didn't make it. Robert really made every cent of
• 2:29:52
  my money. If it hadn't been for him, I'd have been a poor
• 2:29:56
  man to day, or behind prison bars, as are the other men who
• 2:30:01
  went into that deal when I backed out. I've got a son here.
• 2:30:05
  I hope he'll be as clever as his uncle Malcolm. But I hope still
• 2:30:09
  more earnestly, that he'll be as good and honorable a man as his uncle
• 2:30:13
  Robert. By this time, Robert's head was bent again, and his face
• 2:30:18
  buried in his hands. My turn, next, said James, I haven't
• 2:30:22
  much to say, only this. After mother died, I took typhoid fever.
• 2:30:28
  Here it was, with no one to wait on me. Robert came
• 2:30:33
  and nursed me. He was a most faithful, tender, gentle nurse ever
• 2:30:37
  a man had. The doctor said, Robert saved my life. I don't
• 2:30:41
  suppose any of the rest of us here can say that we have saved the
• 2:30:45
  life. Edith wiped away her tears and sprang up impulsively. Years ago,
• 2:30:50
  she said, there is a poor, ambitious girl who had a voice.
• 2:30:54
  She wanted a musical education, and her only apparent chance of obtaining it was
• 2:31:00
  to get a teacher's certificate and earn money enough to off her voice trained.
• 2:31:05
  She studied hard, but her brains in mathematics at least, weren't as good
• 2:31:09
  as her voice, and the time was short. She failed. She was
• 2:31:15
  lost in disappointment and despair, for that was the last year in which it
• 2:31:18
  was possible to obtain his teacher's certificate without attending Queen's Academy, and she could
• 2:31:24
  not afford that. Then her oldest brother came to her and told her he
• 2:31:30
  could spare enough money to cent her to the Conservatory of Music in Halifax for
• 2:31:33
  a year. He made her take it. She never knew till long afterwards
• 2:31:39
  that he had sold the beautiful horse, which he loved like a human creature,
• 2:31:43
  to get the money. She went to the Halifax Conservatory. She won
• 2:31:48
  a musical scholarship. She has had a happy life and a successful career,
• 2:31:54
  and she owes it all to her brother Robert. But Edith could go no
• 2:31:58
  further. Her voice failed her. She sat down in tears. Margaret did
• 2:32:01
  not try to stand up. I was only five when my mother died,
• 2:32:05
  she sobbed. Robert was both father and mother to me. Never had a
• 2:32:11
  child or girl so wise and loving your guardian as he was to me.
• 2:32:18
  I have never forgotten the lessons he taught me. Whatever there is a good
• 2:32:24
  in my life or character, I owe to him. I was often headstrong
• 2:32:28
  and willful, but he never lost patience with me. I owe everything to
• 2:32:35
  Robert. Suddenly the little teacher rose with wet eyes and crimson cheeks. I
• 2:32:39
  have something to say too, she said, resolutely. You have spoken for
• 2:32:43
  yourselves. I speak for the people of White Sands. There is a man
• 2:32:48
  in this settlement whom everybody loves. I shall tell you some of the things
• 2:32:50
  he has done. Last fall, in an October storm, the Harbor lighthouse
• 2:32:56
  flew a flag of distress. Only one man was brave enough to face the
• 2:33:00
  danger of sailing to the lighthouse to find out what the trouble was. That
• 2:33:03
  was Robert Monroe. He found the keeper alone with a broken leg, and
• 2:33:07
  he sailed back and made yes, made the unwilling and terrified doctor go with
• 2:33:13
  him to the lighthouse. I saw him when he told the doctor he must
• 2:33:18
  go. And I tell you that no man living could have set his will
• 2:33:20
  against Robert Monroe's. At that moment. Four years ago, old Sarah Cooper
• 2:33:26
  was to be taken to the poor house. She was broken hearted. One
• 2:33:30
  man took the poor, bed ridden, fretful old creature into his home,
• 2:33:33
  paid for medical attendance, and waited on her himself when his housekeeper couldn't endure
• 2:33:37
  her tantrums and temper. Sarah Cooper died two years afterwards, and her latest
• 2:33:43
  breath was a benediction on Robert Monroe, the best man God ever made.
• 2:33:48
  Eight years ago, Jack blew At wanted a place nobody would hire him because
• 2:33:52
  his father was in the penitentiary, and some people thought Jack ought to be
• 2:33:56
  there too. Robert Monroe hired him and howled him and capt him straight and
• 2:34:01
  got him started right. And Jack Blewet is a hard working, respected young
• 2:34:05
  man to day with avery prospect of a useful and honorable life. There is
• 2:34:11
  hardly a man, woman or child in White Sands who doesn't know something to
• 2:34:15
  Robert Monroe. As Kathleen Bell sat down, Malcolm sprang up and held out
• 2:34:20
  his hands. Every one of us stand up and sing old Langsyne, he
• 2:34:24
  cried. Everybody stood up and joined hands, but one did not sing.
• 2:34:28
  Robert Monroe stood erect with a great radiance on his face, and in his
• 2:34:31
  eyes his reproach had been taken away. He was crowned among his kindred with
• 2:34:35
  the beauty and blessing of sacred yesterdays. When the singing had ceased, Malcolm's
• 2:34:41
  stern faced son reached over and shook Robert's hands. Uncle Rob, He said,
• 2:34:45
  heartily, I hope that when I'm sexty, I'll be a successful man
• 2:34:48
  as you, I guess, said Aunt Isabel Aside to the little school teacher,
• 2:34:54
  as she wiped the tears from her keen old eyes, that it's a
• 2:34:58
  kind of failure that's the best success. End of Story six. Just at
• 2:35:03
  dusk that evening, I had gone upstairs and put on my muslin gown.
• 2:35:09
  I had been busy all day attending to the strawberry preserving, for Mary Sloane
• 2:35:13
  could not be trusted with that, and I was a little tired and thought
• 2:35:18
  it was hardly worth while to change my dress, especially since there was nobody
• 2:35:22
  to see or care since Hester was gone. Mary Sloane did not count,
• 2:35:28
  But I did it because Hester would have cared if she had been here.
• 2:35:31
  She always liked to see me neat and dainty. So although I was tired
• 2:35:37
  and sick at heart, I put on my pale blue mutlin and dressed my
• 2:35:41
  hair. At first, I did my hair up in a way I had
• 2:35:43
  always liked, but had seldom worn because Hester had disapproved of it. It
• 2:35:48
  became me, but I suddenly felt as if it were disloyal to her,
• 2:35:52
  so I took the puffs down again and arranged my hair in the plain,
• 2:35:56
  old fashioned way. She had liked my hair. Though it had a good
• 2:36:01
  many gray threads in, it was thick and long and brown, still,
• 2:36:05
  but that did not matter. Nothing mattered since Hester was dead and I had
• 2:36:09
  sent Hugh Blair away for the second time. The Newbridge people all wondered why
• 2:36:15
  I had not put on mourning for Hester. I did not tell them it
• 2:36:18
  was because Hester had asked me not to. Hester had never approved of mourning.
• 2:36:24
  She said that if the heart did not mourn, crape would not mend
• 2:36:26
  matters, and if it did, there was no need of the external trappings
• 2:36:31
  of a woe. She told me calmly the night before she died, to
• 2:36:35
  go on wearing my pretty dresses, just as I had always worn them,
• 2:36:39
  and to make no difference in my outward life because of her going. I
• 2:36:43
  know there will be a difference in your inward life, she said wistfully.
• 2:36:48
  And oh though worse. But sometimes I wondered, uneasily, feeling almost conscience
• 2:36:54
  stricken, whether it was wholly because Hester had left me, whether it were
• 2:36:58
  not partly become For a second time, I had shut the door of my
• 2:37:03
  heart in the face of love, as her bidding. When I had dressed,
• 2:37:07
  I went downstairs to the front door and sat on the sandstone steps under
• 2:37:11
  the arch of the Virginia Creeper. I was all alone, for Mary Sloane
• 2:37:16
  had gone to Avonlea. It was a beautiful night. The full moon was
• 2:37:20
  just rising over the wooden hills, and her light felt through the poplace into
• 2:37:24
  the garden before me. Through an open corner on the western side, I
• 2:37:28
  saw the sky all silvery blue in the afterlight. The garden was very beautiful
• 2:37:35
  just then, for it was the time of the roses, and ours were
• 2:37:37
  all out, so many of them, great pink and red and white and
• 2:37:43
  yellow roses. As red loved roses and could never have enough of them.
• 2:37:48
  My favorite bush was growing by the steps, all gloried over with blossoms,
• 2:37:54
  white with pale pink hearts. I gathered a cluster and pinned loop on my
• 2:38:00
  breast, but my eyes filled as I did so. I felt so very,
• 2:38:05
  very desolate. I was all alone, and it was bitter. The
• 2:38:09
  roses, much as I loved them, could not give me sufficient companionship.
• 2:38:15
  I wanted the clasp of a human hand and the love light in human eyes.
• 2:38:20
  And then I felt thinking of Hugh, though I tried not to.
• 2:38:24
  I had always lived alone with Hester. I did not remember our parents,
• 2:38:28
  who had died in my babyhood. Hester was fifteen years older than me,
• 2:38:33
  and she had always seemed more like a mother than a sister. She had
• 2:38:37
  been very good to me and had never denied me anything I wanted, save
• 2:38:41
  the one thing that mattered. I was twenty five before I ever had a
• 2:38:46
  lover. This was not, I think, because I was more unattractive than
• 2:38:50
  other women, and the Merediths had always been the big family of Newbridge.
• 2:38:56
  The rest of the people looked up to us because we were the grand daughters
• 2:38:58
  of all Squire Meredith. The Newbridge young men would have thought it no use
• 2:39:03
  to try and woo a Meredith. I had not a great deal of family
• 2:39:07
  pride, as perhaps I should be ashamed to confess. I found our exalted
• 2:39:13
  position very lonely, and cared more for the simple choice of friendship and companionship
• 2:39:18
  which other girls had. But Hester possessed it in a double measure. She
• 2:39:22
  never allowed me to associate on a level of equality with the young people of
• 2:39:26
  Newbridge. We must be very nice and kind and affable to them, no
• 2:39:31
  bless obliged, as it were, but we must never forget that we were
• 2:39:35
  Merediths. When I was twenty five, Hugh Blair came to Newbridge, having
• 2:39:41
  bought a farm near the village. He was a stranger from Lower Carmody and
• 2:39:46
  so was not imbued with any preconceptions of Meredith superiority. In his eyes,
• 2:39:52
  I was just a girl like others, a girl to be wooed and won
• 2:39:56
  by any man of clean life and honest heart. I met him at a
• 2:40:01
  little Sunday school picnic over at Avonlea, which I attended because of my class.
• 2:40:07
  I thought him very handsome and manly. He talked to me a great
• 2:40:11
  deal, and at last he drove me home. The next Sunday evening,
• 2:40:15
  he walked up from church with me. Hester was away, or of course,
• 2:40:20
  this would never have happened. She had gone for a month's visit to
• 2:40:24
  distant friends. In that month I lived a lifetime. Hugh Blair courted me
• 2:40:30
  as the other girls in Newbridge were courted. He took me out driving and
• 2:40:33
  came to see me in the evenings, which we spent for the most part
• 2:40:37
  in the garden. I did not like the stately gloom and formality of our
• 2:40:41
  old Meredith parlor, and Hugh never seemed to feel at ease there. His
• 2:40:46
  broad shoulders and hearty laughter were oddly out of place among our faded all maidish
• 2:40:52
  furnishings. Mary's lawn was very much pleased at she used to visit. She
• 2:40:56
  had always resented the fact that I had never had a bow, seeming to
• 2:41:01
  think it reflected some slight or dispargament upon me. She did all she could
• 2:41:05
  to encourage him, but when Hester returned and found out about Hugh, she
• 2:41:09
  was very angry and grieved, which hurt me far more. She told me
• 2:41:15
  that I had forgotten myself and that Hugh's visits must cease. I had never
• 2:41:20
  been afraid of Hester before, but I was afraid of her. Then I
• 2:41:24
  yielded. Perhaps it was very weak of me, but then I was always
• 2:41:28
  weak. I think that was why Hugh's strain had appealed so to me.
• 2:41:33
  I needed love and protection. Esther, strong and self sufficient, had never
• 2:41:37
  felt such a need. She could not understand. Oh how contemptuous she was.
• 2:41:43
  I told Hugh timidly that Hester did not approve of our friendship, that
• 2:41:48
  it must end. He took it quietly enough and went away. I thought
• 2:41:52
  he did not care much, and the thoughts selfishly made my own heart ache
• 2:41:56
  worse. I was very unhappy for a long time, but I tried not
• 2:42:01
  to let Hester see it, and I don't think she did. She was
• 2:42:05
  not very discerning in some things. After a time, I got over it.
• 2:42:09
  That is, the heartache ceased to ache all the time. But things
• 2:42:13
  were never quite the same again. Life always seemed rather dreary and empty in
• 2:42:18
  spite of Hester and my Roses and my Sunday school. I supposed that Hugh
• 2:42:24
  Blair would find him a wife elsewhere, but he did not. The years
• 2:42:28
  went by, and we never met, although I saw him often at church.
• 2:42:33
  At such times. Hester always watched me very closely, but there was
• 2:42:37
  no need of her to do so. Hugh made no attempt to meet me
• 2:42:41
  or speak with me, and I would not have omitted it if he had.
• 2:42:45
  But my heart always yearned after him. I was selfishly glad he had
• 2:42:50
  not married, because if he had, I could not have thought and dreamed
• 2:42:52
  of him. It would have been wrong. Perhaps as it was, it
• 2:42:56
  was foolish, but it seemed to me that I must have something, if
• 2:43:01
  only foolish dreams, to fill my life. At first there was only pain
• 2:43:05
  in the thought of him, But afterwards a faint, mister little pleasure crept
• 2:43:09
  in like a mirage from a land of lost delight. Ten years slipped away
• 2:43:15
  thus, and then Hester died. Her illness was sudden and short. But
• 2:43:20
  before she died she asked me to promise that I would never marry Hugh Blair.
• 2:43:24
  She had not mentioned his name for years. I thought she had forgotten
• 2:43:28
  all about him. Oh, dear sister, is there any need for such
• 2:43:33
  a promise, I asked, weeping. Hugh Blair does not want to marry
• 2:43:39
  me now. He never will again. He has never married. He has
• 2:43:43
  not forgotten you, she said fiercely. I could not rest in my grave
• 2:43:48
  if I thought you would disgrace your family by marrying beneath you promise me,
• 2:43:50
  Margaret. I promised. I would have promised anything in my power to make
• 2:43:56
  her dying pilloweesia. Besides, what it it matter? I was sure that
• 2:44:01
  she would never think of me again. She smiled when she heard me,
• 2:44:05
  and pressed my hand. Good, little sister, that is right. You
• 2:44:09
  were always a good girl, Margaret, good and obedient, though a little
• 2:44:13
  sentimental and foolish. In some ways, you are like our mother. She
• 2:44:16
  was always weak and loving. I took after the merediths she did, indeed,
• 2:44:22
  even in her coffin her dark handsome features preserved their expression of pride and
• 2:44:28
  determination. Somehow, that last look of her dead face remained in my memory,
• 2:44:33
  blotting out the real affection and gentleness which her living face had almost always
• 2:44:39
  shown me. This distressed me, but I could not help it. I
• 2:44:43
  wished to think of her as kind and loving, but I could remember only
• 2:44:48
  the pride and coldness with which she had crushed out my new born happiness.
• 2:44:52
  Yet I felt no anger or resentment towards her for what she had done.
• 2:44:58
  I knew she had meant it for the best, my best. It was
• 2:45:01
  only that she was mistaken. And then, a month after she had died,
• 2:45:05
  Hugh Blair came to me and asked me to be his wife. He
• 2:45:09
  said he had always loved me and could never love any other woman. All
• 2:45:13
  my old love for him reawakened. I wanted to say yes, to feel
• 2:45:18
  his strong arms about me, and the warmth of his love enfolding in guarding
• 2:45:22
  me in my weakness. I yearned for his strength. But there was my
• 2:45:26
  promise to hester, that promise given by her death bed. I could not
• 2:45:31
  break it, and I told him so. It was the hardest thing I
• 2:45:33
  had ever done. He did not go away quietly. This time he pleaded
• 2:45:37
  and reasoned and reproached. Every word of his hurt me like a knife thrust.
• 2:45:43
  But I could not break my promise to the dead. If Esther had
• 2:45:46
  been living, I could have braid her wrath and her estrangement and gone with
• 2:45:50
  him. But she was dead and I could not do it. Finally he
• 2:45:54
  went away in grief and anger. That was three weeks ago, and now
• 2:45:58
  I sat alone in the moon lit rose garden and wept for him. But
• 2:46:03
  after a time my tears dried, and a very strange feeling came over me.
• 2:46:07
  I felt calm and happy, as if some wonderful love and tenderness for
• 2:46:11
  very near me. And now comes to strange part of my story, the
• 2:46:16
  patch which will not, I suppose, be believed if it were not for
• 2:46:20
  one thing, I think I should hardly believe it myself. I should feel
• 2:46:24
  tempted to think I had dreamed it. But because of that one thing,
• 2:46:28
  I know it was real. The night was very calm, and still not
• 2:46:33
  a breath of wind stirred the moonshine was the brightest I had ever seen in
• 2:46:37
  the middle of the garden, where the shadow of the poplace did not fall.
• 2:46:41
  It was almost as bright as day. One could have read fine print.
• 2:46:46
  There was still a little rose glow in the west, and over the
• 2:46:48
  airy balls of the tall poplace, one or two large bright stars were shining.
• 2:46:54
  The air was sweet with a hush of dreams, and the world was
• 2:46:58
  so lovely that I held my breath over its beauty. Then, all at
• 2:47:03
  once, down at the far end of the garden, I saw a woman
• 2:47:05
  walking. I thought at first that it must be Mary Sloane, But as
• 2:47:11
  she crossed the moonlit path, I saw it was not our old servant's stout,
• 2:47:15
  homely figure. This woman was tall and erect. Although no suspicion of
• 2:47:20
  the truth came to me, something about her reminded me of Hester. Even
• 2:47:24
  so, had Hester liked to wander about the garden in the twilight, I
• 2:47:28
  had seen her. Thus a thousand times. I wondered who the woman could
• 2:47:31
  be. Some neighbor, of course, but what a strange way for her
• 2:47:35
  to come. She walked up the garden slowly in the poplar shade. Now
• 2:47:41
  and then she stopped as if to caress a flower, but she plucked none.
• 2:47:46
  Half Way up, she out in the moonlight and walked across the plot
• 2:47:50
  of grass in the center of the garden. My heart gave a great throb,
• 2:47:54
  and I stood up. She was quite near to me now, and
• 2:47:56
  I saw that it was Hester. I can hardly say just what my feelings
• 2:48:01
  were at this moment. I know that I was not surprised. I was
• 2:48:05
  frightened, and yet I was not frightened. Something in me shrank back in
• 2:48:09
  a sickening terror, But I, the real eye, was not frightened.
• 2:48:13
  I knew that this was my sister, and that there could be no reason
• 2:48:18
  why I should be frightened of her, because she loved me still as she
• 2:48:22
  had always done. Further than this, I was not conscious of any coherent
• 2:48:26
  thought, either of wonder or attempt at reasoning. Hester paused when she came
• 2:48:31
  to within a few steps of me. In the moonlight. I saw her
• 2:48:35
  face quite plainly. It wore an expression I had never before seen on it,
• 2:48:39
  a humble, wistful, tender look. Often in life, hester Head
• 2:48:43
  looked lovingly, even tenderly, upon me, but always as it were,
• 2:48:48
  through a mask of pride and sternness. This was gone now, and I
• 2:48:54
  feel nearer to her than ever before. I knew suddenly that she understood me,
• 2:48:58
  and then the heart of conscious awe and terror. Some part of me
• 2:49:01
  had felt vanished, and I only realized that Hester was there, and that
• 2:49:07
  there was no terrible gulf of change between us. Hester beckoned to me and
• 2:49:11
  said, come. I stood up and followed her out of the garden.
• 2:49:16
  We walked side by side down our lane, under the willows, and out
• 2:49:20
  of the road, which lay long and still in that bright calm Moonshine.
• 2:49:26
  I felt as if I were in a dream, moving at the bidding of
• 2:49:28
  a will not my own, which I could not have disputed, even if
• 2:49:33
  I had wished to do so. But I did not wish it. I
• 2:49:37
  had only the feeling of a strange, boundless content. We went down the
• 2:49:41
  road between the growth of a young fear that bordered it. I smelt their
• 2:49:46
  balsam as we passed, and noticed how clearly and darkly their pointed tops came
• 2:49:50
  out against the sky. I heard the tread of my own feet on little
• 2:49:54
  twigs and plant in our way, and the trail of my dress over the
• 2:49:58
  grass. But Hester moved noiselessly. Then we went through the avenue, that
• 2:50:03
  stretch of road under the apple trees that Anne Shirley over at Avonlea calls the
• 2:50:09
  White Way of Delight. It was almost dark hair in Ittta could see Hester's
• 2:50:15
  face just as plainly as if the moon were shining on it, And whenever
• 2:50:18
  I looked at her, she was always looking at me with that strangely gentle
• 2:50:22
  smile on her lips. Just as we passed out of the avenue, James
• 2:50:28
  Trent overtook us driving. It seems to me that our feelings at a given
• 2:50:31
  moment are seldom what we would expect him to be. I simply felt annoyed
• 2:50:37
  that James Trent, the most notorious gossip in Newbridge, should have seen me
• 2:50:41
  walking with Hester. In a flash, I anticipated all the annoyance of it.
• 2:50:46
  He would talk of the matter far and wide. But James Trent merely
• 2:50:50
  nodded and called out, how do you miss Margaret taken a moonlight straw by
• 2:50:54
  yourself? Lovely annoyed? Ain't it? Just then his horse suddenly swerved as
• 2:51:01
  if startled, and broke into a gallop. They whirled around the curve of
• 2:51:05
  the road in an instant. I felt relieved but puzzled. James Trent had
• 2:51:09
  not seen Hester. Down over the hill was Hugh Blair's place. When we
• 2:51:15
  came to it, Hester turned in at the gate. Then, for the
• 2:51:18
  first time I understood why she had come back, and a blinding flash of
• 2:51:22
  joy broke over my soul. I stopped and looked at her. Her deep
• 2:51:28
  eyes gazed into mine, but she did not speak. We went on.
• 2:51:33
  Hugh's house lay before us in the moonlight, grown over by a tangle of
• 2:51:37
  wines. His garden was on our right, a quaint spot full of old
• 2:51:41
  fashioned flowers growing in a sort of disorderly sweetness. I trod on a bed
• 2:51:46
  of mint, and the spice of it floated up to me like the incense
• 2:51:50
  of some strange, sacred, solemn ceremonial. I felt unspeakably happy and blessed.
• 2:51:56
  When we came to the door, Hester said, nak Margaret. I
• 2:52:01
  rapped gently. In a moment Hugh opened it. Then that's happened with which
• 2:52:07
  in after days I was to know that this strange thing was no dream of
• 2:52:11
  fancy of mine. Hugh looked not at me, but passed me. Hester,
• 2:52:16
  he exclaimed, with a human fair and horror in his voice. He
• 2:52:20
  leaned against the door post, the big strong fellow trembling from head to foot,
• 2:52:24
  I have learned, said Hester, that nothing matters in all God's universe
• 2:52:30
  except love. There is no pride where I have been, and no false
• 2:52:33
  ideals. Hugh and I looked into each other's eyes wondering, and then we
• 2:52:39
  knew that we were alone. End of story seven. The first summer,
• 2:52:43
  mister Irving and Miss Lavendar, Diana and I could never call her anything else,
• 2:52:50
  even after she was married, were at Echo Lodge. After their marriage.
• 2:52:54
  Both Diana and I spend a great deal of time with them. We
• 2:52:58
  became acquainted with me many of the Grafton people whom we had not known before,
• 2:53:03
  and among others, the family of mister mac Leith. We often went
• 2:53:07
  up to the Leiths in the evening to play croquette. Millie and Margaret Leith
• 2:53:13
  were very nice girls, and the boys were nice too. Indeed, we
• 2:53:16
  liked everyone in the family except poor old miss Emily Leith. We tried hard
• 2:53:24
  enough to like her, because she seemed to like Diana and me very much
• 2:53:28
  and always wanted to sit with us and talk to us when we would much
• 2:53:33
  rather have been somewhere else. We often felt a good deal of impatience at
• 2:53:39
  these times, but I am very glad to think now that we never showed
• 2:53:43
  it in a way. We felt sorry for miss Emily. She was mister
• 2:53:50
  Leith's old maid sister, and she was not of much importance in the household.
• 2:53:54
  But though we felt sorry for her, we couldn't like her. She
• 2:53:58
  really was fun and meddlesome. She liked to poke a finger into everyone's pie,
• 2:54:03
  and she was not at all tactful. Then too. She had a
• 2:54:07
  sarcastic tongue and seemed to feel bitter toward all the young folks and their love
• 2:54:11
  affairs. Diana and I thought this was because she had never had a lover
• 2:54:16
  of her own. Somehow it seemed impossible to think of lovers in connection with
• 2:54:22
  miss Emily. She was short and stout and pudgy, with a face so
• 2:54:28
  round and fat and red that it seemed quite featureless, and her hair was
• 2:54:33
  scanty and gray. She walked with a waddle, just like missus Rachel Lynde,
• 2:54:39
  and she was always rather short of breath. It was hard to believe
• 2:54:43
  miss Emily had ever been young, Yet old mister Murray, who lived next
• 2:54:48
  door to the Leafs, not only expected us to believe it, but assured
• 2:54:52
  us that she had been very pretty that at least is impossible, said Diana
• 2:54:58
  to me. Then one day miss Emily died. I'm afraid no one was
• 2:55:03
  very sorry. It seems to me a most dreadful thing to go out of
• 2:55:09
  the world and leave not one person behind to be sorry because you have gone.
• 2:55:13
  Miss Emily was dead and buried before Diana and I heard of it at
• 2:55:18
  all. The first I knew of it was when I came home from Orchard
• 2:55:22
  Slope one day and found a queer, shabby, little black horse hair trunk,
• 2:55:28
  all studded with brass nails on the floor of my room at Green Gables.
• 2:55:33
  Marilla told me that Jack Leath had brought it over and said that it
• 2:55:35
  had belonged to miss Emily, and that when she was dying she asked them
• 2:55:41
  to send it to me. But what is in it? And what am
• 2:55:45
  I to do with it? I asked, in bewilderment. There was nothing
• 2:55:48
  said about what you were to do with it. Jack said they didn't know
• 2:55:52
  what was in it and hadn't looked into it, seeing that it was your
• 2:55:56
  property. It seems a rather queer proceeding, but you're always getting mixed up
• 2:56:01
  in queer proceedings. Anne as for what is in it, The easiest way
• 2:56:05
  to find out, I reckon is to open it and see the key is
• 2:56:07
  tied to it, Jack said. Miss Emily said she wanted you to have
• 2:56:11
  it because she loved you and saw her lost youth. Iny. I guess
• 2:56:16
  she was a bit delarious at the last and wondered a good deal. She
• 2:56:20
  said, she wanted you to understand her. I ran over to Orchard Slope
• 2:56:24
  and asked Diana to come over and examine the trunk with me. I hadn't
• 2:56:28
  received any instructions about keeping its content secret, and I knew miss Emily wouldn't
• 2:56:35
  mind Diana knowing about them, whatever they were. It was a cool,
• 2:56:39
  gray afternoon, and we got back to Green Gables just as the rain was
• 2:56:43
  beginning to fall. When we went up to my room, the wind was
• 2:56:48
  rising and whistling through the boughs of the big old snow Queen outside of my
• 2:56:52
  window. Diana was excited, and I really believe a little bit frightened.
• 2:57:01
  We opened the old trunk. It was very small and there was nothing in
• 2:57:07
  it but a big cardboard box. The box was tied up and the knots
• 2:57:11
  sealed with wax. We lifted it out and untied it. I touched Diana's
• 2:57:18
  fingers as we did it, and both of us exclaimed at once, how
• 2:57:20
  cold your hand is. In the box was a quaint, pretty old fashioned
• 2:57:28
  gown, not at all faded, made of blue muslin, with a little
• 2:57:33
  darker blue flower in it. Under it we found a sash, a yellowed
• 2:57:37
  feather fan, and an envelope full of withered flowers. At the bottom of
• 2:57:43
  the box was a little brown book. It was small and thin, like
• 2:57:48
  a girl's exercise book, with leaves that had once been blue and pink,
• 2:57:54
  but were now quite faded and stained in places. On the fly leaf was
• 2:57:58
  read in a very delicate hand Emily Margaret Leith, and the same writing covered
• 2:58:07
  the first few pages of the book. The rest were not written on at
• 2:58:11
  all. We sat there on the floor, Diana and I, and read
• 2:58:16
  the little book together while the rain thudded against the window panes. June nineteenth
• 2:58:22
  eighteen something. I came to day to spend a while with Aunt Margaret and
• 2:58:28
  Charlottetown. It is so pretty here where she lives, and ever so much
• 2:58:31
  nicer than on the farm at home. I have no cows to milk here
• 2:58:35
  or pigs to feed. Aunt Margaret has given me such a lovely blue muslin
• 2:58:39
  dress, and I am to have it made to wear at a garden party
• 2:58:43
  at it Bright next week. I never had a muslin dress before, nothing
• 2:58:46
  but ugly prince and dark woolens. I wish we were rich like Aunt Margaret.
• 2:58:54
  Aunt Margaret laughed when I said this, and declared she would give all
• 2:58:58
  her wealth for my youth and beauty and light heartedness. I'm only eighteen,
• 2:59:03
  and I know I am very merry, but I wonder if I'm really pretty.
• 2:59:07
  It seems to me that I am when I look in Aunt Margaret's beautiful
• 2:59:09
  mirrors. They made me look very different from the old, cracked one in
• 2:59:13
  my room at home, which always twisted my face and turned me green.
• 2:59:16
  But Aunt Margaret spoiled her compliment by telling me I look exactly as she did
• 2:59:22
  at my age. If I thought I'd ever look as Aunt Margaret does now,
• 2:59:26
  I don't know what I'd do. She is so fat and red.
• 2:59:31
  June twenty nine. Last week I went to the garden party and I met
• 2:59:35
  a young man called Paul Osborne. He is a young artist from Montreal who
• 2:59:41
  was boarding over at Heppoch. He is the handsomest man I have ever seen,
• 2:59:46
  very tall and slender, with dreamy dark eyes and a pale, clever
• 2:59:50
  face. I have not been able to keep from thinking about him ever since.
• 2:59:56
  And to day he came over here and asked if he could paint me.
• 3:00:00
  I felt very much flattered and so pleased when Aunt Margaret gave him permission.
• 3:00:03
  He says he wants to paint me a spring standing under the poplars,
• 3:00:07
  where a fine rain of sunshine falls through. I'm to wear my blue muslin
• 3:00:11
  gown and a wreath of flowers on my hair. He says, I have
• 3:00:15
  such beautiful hair. He has never seen any of such a real pale gold.
• 3:00:18
  Somehow, it seems even prettier than ever to me since he praised it.
• 3:00:22
  I had a letter from home to day. Ma says the blue hen
• 3:00:26
  stole her nest and came off the fourteen chickins, and that Pa has sold
• 3:00:31
  the little spotted calf. Somehow, those things don't interest me like they once
• 3:00:37
  did. July nine. The picture is coming on very well, mister Osborne
• 3:00:41
  says, I know he is making me look far too pretty in it,
• 3:00:45
  although he persists in saying he can't do me justice. He's going to send
• 3:00:48
  it to some great exhibition when finished, but he says he will make a
• 3:00:50
  little water color copy for me. He comes every day to paint, and
• 3:00:56
  we talk a great deal, and he reads me lovely things out of it
• 3:01:00
  books. I don't understand them all, but I try to, and he
• 3:01:05
  explains them so nicely, and a so patient with my stupidity. And he
• 3:01:09
  says, any one with my eyes and hair and coloring does not need to
• 3:01:15
  be clever. He says, I have the sweetest, merriest laugh in the
• 3:01:20
  world. But I will not write down all the compliments he has paid me.
• 3:01:24
  I dare say he does not mean them at all. In the evening
• 3:01:28
  we stroll among the spruce's, or sit on the bench under the acacia tree.
• 3:01:31
  Sometimes we don't talk at all, but I never find the time long.
• 3:01:35
  Indeed, the minutes just seem to fly, and then the moon will
• 3:01:39
  come up round and red over the harbor, and mister Osborne will sigh and
• 3:01:43
  say he supposes it is time for him to go. July twenty fourth,
• 3:01:48
  I am so happy. I am frightened at my happiness. Oh, I
• 3:01:52
  didn't think life could ever be so beautiful for me as it is. Paul
• 3:01:58
  loves me. He told me so to night as we walked by the harbor
• 3:02:01
  and watched the sunset, and he asked me to be his wife. I
• 3:02:05
  have cared for him ever since I met him. But I am afraid I
• 3:02:07
  am not clever and well educated enough for a wife for Paul, because of
• 3:02:11
  course I'm only an ignorant, little country girl and have lived all my life
• 3:02:15
  on a farm, and my hands are quite rough yet from the work I've
• 3:02:18
  done. But Paul just laughed when I said so, and took my hands
• 3:02:20
  and kissed them. Then he looked into my eyes and laughed again, because
• 3:02:24
  I couldn't hide from him how much I loved him. We are to be
• 3:02:28
  married next spring, and Paul says he will take me to Europe. That
• 3:02:33
  will be very nice. But nothing matters so long as I am with him.
• 3:02:39
  Paul's people are very wealthy, and his mother and sisters are very fashionable.
• 3:02:46
  I am frightened of them. But I did not tell Paul so because
• 3:02:50
  I think it would hurt him, and oh, I wouldn't do that for
• 3:02:52
  the world. There is nothing I wouldn't suffer if it would do him any
• 3:02:56
  good. I never thought anyone would feel so. I used to think if
• 3:03:00
  I loved anybody, I would want him to do everything for me and wait
• 3:03:03
  on me as if I were a princess. That is not the way at
• 3:03:05
  all. Love makes you very humbable, and you want to do everything yourself
• 3:03:09
  for the one you love. August tenth, Paul went home today. How
• 3:03:15
  it is so terrible. I don't know how I can bear to live even
• 3:03:18
  for a little while without him. But this is silly of me, because
• 3:03:22
  I know he has to go, and he will write often and come to
• 3:03:24
  me often, But still it is so lonesome. I didn't cry when he
• 3:03:28
  left me because I wanted him to remember me smiling and the way he liked
• 3:03:33
  best. But I have been crying ever since, and I can't stop,
• 3:03:37
  no matter how hard I try. We have had such a beautiful fortnight.
• 3:03:43
  Every day seemed dearer and happier than the last, and now it has ended,
• 3:03:48
  and I feel as if I could never be the same again. How
• 3:03:52
  I am very foolish, but I love him so dearly, and if I
• 3:03:56
  were to lose his love, I know I would die. August seventeen.
• 3:04:01
  I think my heart is dead. No, it can't be, for it
• 3:04:05
  aches too much. Paul's mother came here to see me to day. She
• 3:04:09
  was not angry or disagreeable. I wouldn't have been so frightened of her if
• 3:04:11
  she had been as it was, I felt that I couldn't say a word.
• 3:04:16
  She is very beautiful and stately and wonderful, with a low, cold
• 3:04:20
  voice and proud, dark eyes. Her face is like Paul's, but without
• 3:04:24
  the lovableness of his. She talked to me for a long time, and
• 3:04:28
  she said terrible things, terrible because I knew they were all true. I
• 3:04:33
  seemed to see everything through her eyes. She said that Paul was infatuated with
• 3:04:39
  my youth and beauty, but that it would not last. And what else
• 3:04:43
  had I to give him. She said, Paul must marry a woman of
• 3:04:46
  his own class who would do honor to his fame and position. She said
• 3:04:50
  that he was very talented and had a great career before him, but that
• 3:04:56
  if he married me it would ruin his life. I saw it all just
• 3:05:00
  as she explained it out, and I told her at last that I would
• 3:05:03
  not marry Paul, and she might tell him so, but she smiled and
• 3:05:07
  said I must tell him myself. Because you would not believe anyone else.
• 3:05:11
  I could have begged her to spare me that, but I knew it would
• 3:05:13
  be of no use. I do not think she has any pity or mercy
• 3:05:16
  for anyone. Besides, what she said was quite true. When she thanked
• 3:05:20
  me for being so reasonable, I told her I was not doing it to
• 3:05:26
  please her, but for Paul's sake, because I would not spoil his life,
• 3:05:31
  and that I would always hate her. She smiled again and went away,
• 3:05:37
  Oh how can I bear it? I did not know any one could
• 3:05:39
  suffer like this. August eighteenth, I have done it. I wrote to
• 3:05:45
  Paul to day. I knew I must tell him by letter, because I
• 3:05:48
  could never make him believe it face to face. I was afraid I could
• 3:05:50
  not even do it by letter. I suppose a clever woman easily could,
• 3:05:54
  but I am so stupid. I wrote a great many letters and tore them
• 3:05:58
  up because I felt sure they wouldn't convince Paul. At last, I got
• 3:06:03
  one that I thought would do. I knew I must make it seem as
• 3:06:07
  if I were very frivolous and heartless, or he would never believe. I
• 3:06:11
  spelled some words wrong and put in some mistakes of grammar on purpose. I
• 3:06:16
  told him I had just been flirting with him, and that I had another
• 3:06:18
  fellow at home I liked better, I said fellow, because I knew it
• 3:06:22
  would disgust him. I said that it was only because he was rich that
• 3:06:24
  I was tempted to marry him. I thought my heart would break while I
• 3:06:28
  was writing those dreadful falsehoods, But it was for his sake, because I
• 3:06:33
  must not spoil his life. His mother told me I would be a millstone
• 3:06:39
  around his neck. I love Paul so much that I would do anything rather
• 3:06:43
  than be that. It would be easy to die for him. But I
• 3:06:48
  don't see how I can go on living. I think my letter will convince
• 3:06:52
  Paul. I suppose it convinced Paul, because there was no further entry in
• 3:06:58
  the Little Brown Book. When we had finished it, the tears were running
• 3:07:03
  down both our faces. Oh poor dear miss Emily, sobbed Diana. I'm
• 3:07:09
  so sorry I ever thought her funny and meddlesome. She was good and strong
• 3:07:15
  and brave. I said, I could never have been as unselfish as she
• 3:07:20
  was. I thought of Whittier's lines, the outward wayward life we see the
• 3:07:26
  hidden springs we may not know. At the back of the little brown book
• 3:07:31
  we found a faded water color sketch of a young girl, such a slim,
• 3:07:37
  pretty little thing with big blue eyes and lovely, long, rippling golden
• 3:07:41
  hair. Paul Osborne's name was written in faded ink across the corner. We
• 3:07:48
  put everything back in the box. Then we sat for a long time by
• 3:07:52
  my window in silence and thought of many things, until the rainy twilight came
• 3:08:00
  down and blotted out the world and of story number eight. The warm June
• 3:08:09
  sunshine was coming down through the trees, white with a virginal bloom of apple
• 3:08:13
  blossoms, and through the shining panes, making a tremulous mosaic upon Missus Ebban
• 3:08:18
  Andrew's spotless kitchen floor. Through the open door, a wind fragrant from long
• 3:08:22
  wanderings over orchards and clover meadows drifted in and from the window, Missus Eban
• 3:08:26
  and her guest could look down over the long, misty valley sloping to a
• 3:08:31
  sparkling sea. Missus Jonas Andrews was spending the afternoon with her sister in law.
• 3:08:35
  She was a big, sonsy woman with full blown peony cheeks and large,
• 3:08:39
  dreamy brown eyes. When she had been a slim, pink and white
• 3:08:43
  girl, those eyes had been very romantic. Now they were so out of
• 3:08:48
  keeping with the rest of her appearance as to be ludicrous. Missus Ebban,
• 3:08:52
  sitting at the other end of a small tea table that was drawn up against
• 3:08:54
  the window, was a thin little woman with a very sharp nose and light
• 3:08:58
  faded blue eyes. She looked like a woman whose opinions were always very decided
• 3:09:03
  and warranted to wear. How does Sarah like teaching at Newbridge, asked missus
• 3:09:07
  Jonas, helping herself a second time to missus Ebbans's matchless black fruit cake,
• 3:09:13
  and thereby bestowing a subtle compliment which missus Ebban did not fail to appreciate.
• 3:09:16
  Well, I guess she likes it pretty well better than down at White Sands,
• 3:09:20
  anyway, answered missus Ebben. Yes, I may say it suits her.
• 3:09:26
  Of course. It's a long walk there and back. I think it
• 3:09:28
  would have been wiser for her to keep on boarding at Morrison's as she did
• 3:09:31
  all winter, but there is bound to be home all she can, and
• 3:09:35
  I must say the walk seems to agree with her. I was down to
• 3:09:37
  see Jonas's aunt at Newbridge last night, said missus Jonas. And she said
• 3:09:43
  she'd heard that Sara had made up her mind to take Liege Baxter at last,
• 3:09:48
  and that they were to be married in the fall. She asked me
• 3:09:50
  if it was true. I said I didn't know, but I hope to
• 3:09:54
  mercy it was. Now, is it, Louisa? Not a word of
• 3:09:58
  it, said missus Ebbans sorrowfully. Sarah hasn't any more notion of taking Lidge
• 3:10:03
  than ever she had. I'm sure it's not my fault. I've talked and
• 3:10:07
  argued till I'm tired, I declared to you, Amelia, I am terribly
• 3:10:11
  disappointed. I'd set my heart on Sarah's marringlydge I now to think she won't.
• 3:10:16
  She's a very foolish girl, said missus Jonas judicially. If Leee Baxter
• 3:10:22
  isn't good enough for her, who is? And he's so well off,
• 3:10:26
  said missus Ebben. And that's such a good business and is well spoken of
• 3:10:30
  by every one. And that lovely new house of his at Newbridge, with
• 3:10:33
  bay windows and hardwood floors. I've dreamed and dreamed of seeing Sarah there as
• 3:10:39
  mistress. Maybe you'll see her there yet, said missus Jonas, who always
• 3:10:43
  took a hopeful view of everything, even of Sarah's contrariness. But she felt
• 3:10:46
  discouraged to well she had done her best. If Leege Baxter's broth was spoiled,
• 3:10:52
  it was not for lack of cooks. Every Andrews and Evonley had been
• 3:10:56
  trying for two years to bring a better match between him and Sarah, and
• 3:10:58
  missus Johnah had borne her part valiantly. Missus Ebbans's despondent reply was cut short
• 3:11:03
  by the appearance of Sarah herself. The girl stood for a moment in the
• 3:11:07
  doorway and looked with a faintly amused air at her aunt's She knew quite well
• 3:11:11
  that they had been discussing her, for Missus Jonas, who carried her conscience
• 3:11:15
  in her face, looked guilty, and missus Ebban had not been able wholly
• 3:11:18
  to banish her aggrieved expression. Sarah put away her books, kissed Missus Jonas's
• 3:11:24
  rosy cheek, and sat down at the table. Missus Ebban brought her some
• 3:11:28
  fresh tea, some hot rolls, and a little jelly pot of the apricot
• 3:11:31
  preserved. Sara liked and she cut some more fruit cake for her, in
• 3:11:35
  moist, plummy slices. She might be out of patience with Sarah's contrariness,
• 3:11:39
  but she spoiled and petted her for all that for the girl was the very
• 3:11:41
  core of her childless heart. Sarah Andrews was not strictly speaking pretty, but
• 3:11:48
  there was that about her which made people look at her twice. She was
• 3:11:50
  very dark, with a rich, dusky sort of darkness. Her deep eyes
• 3:11:54
  were velvety brown, and her cheeks and lips were crimson. She ate her
• 3:11:58
  rolls with a healthy appetite sharpened by her long walk from Newbridge, and told
• 3:12:03
  amusing little stories of her day's work that made the two older women shake with
• 3:12:07
  laughter and exchange shy glances of pride over her cleverness. When tea was over,
• 3:12:11
  she poured the remaining contents of the cream jug into a saucer and thesphe
• 3:12:16
  me pussy, she said as she left the room. That girl beats me,
• 3:12:20
  said missus Evan, with a stigh of perplexity. You know that black
• 3:12:24
  cat we've had for two years, Eban and I have always made a lot
• 3:12:26
  of him, but Sara seemed to have a dislike to him. Never a
• 3:12:31
  peaceful nap under the stove could he have when Sara was home out. He
• 3:12:33
  must go well. A little spell ago he got his leg broke, I
• 3:12:37
  sidentily, and we thought he'd have to be killed. But Sarah wouldn't hear
• 3:12:41
  of it. She got splints and set his leg just as nacky and bandaged
• 3:12:46
  it up. And she has tendered him like a sick baby ever since.
• 3:12:50
  He's just about well now when he lives in Clover, that cat does.
• 3:12:52
  It's just her way. There's them sick chickens. She's been doctoring for a
• 3:12:56
  week, giving them pills and things. Auntie thinks more of that wretched looking
• 3:13:01
  calf that got poisoned with Paris green than of all the other stock on the
• 3:13:05
  place. As the summer wore away, missus Ebben tried to reconcile herself to
• 3:13:09
  the destruction of her air castles, but she scolded Sarah considerably. Sarah,
• 3:13:15
  why don't you like Lydge. I'm sure he's a model young man. I
• 3:13:18
  don't like maldel young men, answered Sarah impatiently. And I really think I
• 3:13:24
  hate Ledge Baxter. He has always been held up to me in such a
• 3:13:28
  paragon. I'm tired of hearing about all his perfections. I know them all
• 3:13:31
  off by heart. He doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't steal,
• 3:13:37
  he doesn't tell fibbs, he never loses his temper, he doesn't swear,
• 3:13:41
  and he goes to church regularly. Such a faultless creature as that would
• 3:13:45
  certainly get on my nerves. No, no, you have to pick out
• 3:13:48
  another mistress for your new house, said the Bridge aunt Louisa. When the
• 3:13:52
  apple trees that had been pink and white in June were russet and bronze in
• 3:13:54
  October. Missus Ebban had a quilting. The quilt was of the rising Star
• 3:14:00
  pattern, which was considered avon Lea to be very handsome. Missus Ebban had
• 3:14:03
  intended it for part of Sarah's setting out, and while she sewed the red
• 3:14:07
  and white diamonds together, she had regaled her fancy by imagining she saw it
• 3:14:11
  spread out on the spare room bed of a house at Newbridge, with herself
• 3:14:15
  laying her bonnet and shawl on it. When she went to see Sarah,
• 3:14:18
  those bright visions had faded with the apple blossoms, and missus Ebban hardly had
• 3:14:22
  the heart to finish the quilt at all. The quilting came off on Saturday
• 3:14:24
  afternoon, when Sarah could be home from school. All Missus Ebbans's particular friends
• 3:14:30
  were ranged around the quilt and tongues and fingers flew. Sarah flitted about helping
• 3:14:35
  her aunt with the supper preparations. She was in the room getting the custard
• 3:14:39
  dishes out of the cupboard when Missus George Pye arrived. Missus George had a
• 3:14:43
  genius for being late. She was later than usual to day, and she
• 3:14:46
  looked excited. Every woman around the Rising Star felt that Missus George had some
• 3:14:50
  news worth listening to, and there was an expectant silence while she pulled out
• 3:14:54
  her chair and settled herself at the quilt. She was a tall, thin
• 3:14:58
  woman with a long face and liquid green eyes. As she looked around the
• 3:15:03
  circle, she had the air of a cat daintly licking its chops over some
• 3:15:05
  titpit. I suppose she said that you have heard the news. She knew
• 3:15:11
  perfectly well that they had not. Every other woman at the frame stopped quilting.
• 3:15:16
  Missus Evan came to the door with a pan of puffy smoking hot soda,
• 3:15:20
  biscuits in her hand, Sarah stopped counting the custard dishes and turned her
• 3:15:24
  ripely colored face over her shoulder. Even the black cat at her feet ceased
• 3:15:28
  preening his fur. Missus George felt that the undivided attention of the audience was
• 3:15:33
  hers. Baxter brothers have failed, she said, her green eyes shooting out
• 3:15:37
  flashes of light, failed disgracefully. She paused for a moment, but since
• 3:15:43
  her hearers were as yet speedless from surprise, she went on. George came
• 3:15:46
  home from Newbridge just before I left with the news. You could have knocked
• 3:15:50
  me down with a feather. I should have thought that furne was as steady
• 3:15:52
  as the rock of Gibraltar. But they're ruined, absolutely ruined. Luis a
• 3:15:58
  Dieu? Can you find me a good needle? Louise a Deer had set
• 3:16:01
  her biscuits down with a sharp thud, reckless of results. A sharp metallic
• 3:16:05
  tinkle sounded at the closet where Sarah had struck the edge of her tray against
• 3:16:09
  the shelf. The sound seemed to loosen the paralyzed tongues, and everybody began
• 3:16:13
  talking and exclaiming at once clear and shrill. Above the confusion rose Missus George
• 3:16:18
  Pye's voice. Yes, indeed, you may well say so. It is
• 3:16:22
  disgraceful, and to think how everybody trusted them. George will loose considerable by
• 3:16:28
  the crash, and so will a good many folks. Everything will have to
• 3:16:31
  go, Peter Baxter's farm, Elijah's grand new house. Missus Peter won't carry
• 3:16:35
  her head so high after this, I'll be bound. George saw Lije at
• 3:16:39
  the bridge, and he said he looked dreadful, cut up and ashamed.
• 3:16:43
  Who or what's to blame for the failure, asked Missus Rachel Lynn sharply.
• 3:16:48
  She did not like Missus George Pye. There are a dozen different stories on
• 3:16:52
  the go, was the reply, As far as George could make out.
• 3:16:56
  Peter Baxter has been speculating with other folks money and this is the result.
• 3:17:01
  Everybody always suspected that Peter was crooked, but you'd have thought that Lyge would
• 3:17:05
  have kept him straight. He had always such a reputation for saintliness. I
• 3:17:09
  don't suppose lyche knew anything about it, said Missus Rachel indignantly. Well he
• 3:17:16
  ought to then, if he isn't a name He's a fool, said Missus
• 3:17:20
  Harmon Andrews, who had formerly been amongst his warmest partisans. He should have
• 3:17:26
  kept watch on Peter and found out how the business was being run. Well,
• 3:17:31
  Sarah, you were the level heads of us. All. I admit
• 3:17:35
  that now a nice mess. It would be if you were married or engage
• 3:17:39
  light And he left without assent, even if he can clear his character.
• 3:17:45
  There's a good deal of talk about Peter and swindling and a lawsuit, said
• 3:17:50
  Missus George Pye, quilting industriously. Most of the Newbridge folks think it's all
• 3:17:54
  Peter's fault and that Lige isn't a blame. But you can't tell. I
• 3:17:58
  dare say Lige is as deep as Amaya is. Peter. He was always
• 3:18:01
  a little too good to be wholesome. I thought. There was a clink
• 3:18:05
  of glass at the cupboard. As Sarah set the tray down, she came
• 3:18:07
  forward and stood behind Missus Rachel Lynde's chair, resting her shapely hands on that
• 3:18:11
  lady's broad shoulders. Her face was very pale, but her flashing eyes sought
• 3:18:16
  and faced defiantly. Missus George Pye's catlike orbs her voice quivered with passion and
• 3:18:20
  contempt. You'll all have a finger Ledge Baxter. Now that tee's down.
• 3:18:24
  You cann't see nothing in his praise once. I'll not stand by and here
• 3:18:28
  it hinted the leiche. Baxter's a swindler. You'll know perfectly well the Lija's
• 3:18:33
  as honest as the day. If he is so unfortunate as to have an
• 3:18:35
  unprincipled brother, you, Missus Pie, no better than anyone. You come
• 3:18:41
  here and run him down the minute he's in trouble. If there's another word
• 3:18:45
  said here against Ledge Baxter, I'll leave the room and the house to your
• 3:18:48
  gone, every one of you. She flashed a glance around the quilt that
• 3:18:52
  cowed the gossips. Even Missus George Pye's eyes flickered and waned and quailed.
• 3:18:56
  Nothing more was said until Sarah had picked up her glasses and march from the
• 3:19:00
  room. Even then they dared not speak above a whisper. Missus Pye,
• 3:19:03
  alone, smarting from the snub, ventured to ejaculate pity save us as Sarah
• 3:19:09
  slammed the door. For the next fortnight, gossip and rumor held high carnival
• 3:19:13
  in Avonlea and Newbridge and missus Evan grew to dread the sight of a visitor.
• 3:19:18
  They're bound to talk about the Baxter failure and criticize Lidge. She deplored
• 3:19:22
  to Missus Jonas and at Hyle Sarah up so terrible. She used to declare
• 3:19:26
  that she hated Lydge, and now she won't listen to her word against him,
• 3:19:31
  Not that I say any myself. I'm sorry for him, and I
• 3:19:33
  believe he's done his best, but I can't stop other people from talking.
• 3:19:37
  One evening, Harmon Andrews came in with a fresh budget of news. Well,
• 3:19:41
  Backstone business is pretty near wound up at last, he said as he
• 3:19:46
  lighted his pipe. Peter has got his law since settled and has hushed up
• 3:19:50
  the talk about the swindlings. Somehow trust him for slipping out of a scrape,
• 3:19:54
  clean and clever. He don't seem to worry any but Leed looks like
• 3:19:58
  a walking skeleton. Some faulks pity hum. But I say he should have
• 3:20:03
  kept the runner things better and not have trusted everything to Peter. I hear
• 3:20:07
  he's going out west in the spring to take up land in Alberta and try
• 3:20:11
  his hand at farming. Best thing he can do. I guess folks here
• 3:20:16
  about had enough of the Baxter breed. New Bridge will be well rid of
• 3:20:20
  them. Sarah, who'd been sitting in the dark corner by the stove,
• 3:20:22
  suddenly stood up, letting the black cat slip from her lap to the floor.
• 3:20:26
  Missus Ebban glanced at her apprehensively, for she was afraid the girl was
• 3:20:30
  going to break out in a tirade against the complacent Harmon. But Sarah only
• 3:20:33
  walked fiercely out of the kitchen with a sound as if she were struggling for
• 3:20:37
  breath. In the hall, she snatched a scarf from the wall, flung
• 3:20:41
  open the front door, and rushed down the lane in the chill, pure
• 3:20:43
  air of the autumn twilight. Her heart was throbbing with the pity she always
• 3:20:48
  felt for bruised and baited creatures. On and on she went, heedlessly,
• 3:20:52
  intent only on walking away her pane over gray, brooding fields and winding slopes,
• 3:20:56
  and along the skirts of ruinous, dusky pine woods curtained with fine spun
• 3:21:01
  purple gloom. Her dress brushed against the brittle glasses and sea ferns, and
• 3:21:05
  the moist night wind loosened from wild places far away, blew her hair about
• 3:21:09
  her face. At last, she came to a little rustic gate leading into
• 3:21:13
  a shadowy wood lane. The gate was bound with willows, and as Sarah
• 3:21:18
  fumbled vainly at them with her chilled hands, a man's firm step came up
• 3:21:22
  behind her, and Lee Baxter's hand closed over hers home Late, she said,
• 3:21:26
  with something like a sob. He opened the gate and drew her through.
• 3:21:31
  She left her hand in his, and as they walked through the lane,
• 3:21:33
  where lissome boughs of young saplings slicked against their heads and the air was
• 3:21:37
  wildly sweet with woodsy odors. So long while since I've seen you, Lage,
• 3:21:41
  Sarah said. At last, Leege looked wistfully down at her through the
• 3:21:45
  gloom. Yes, it seems very long to me, Sarah. But I
• 3:21:48
  didn't think you'd care to see me after what you said last spring. And
• 3:21:52
  you know things have been going against me, people who said hard things.
• 3:21:56
  I've been unfortunate, Sarah, and may be too easy going, but I've
• 3:22:00
  been honest. Don't believe folks if they tell you I wasn't. Indeed I
• 3:22:03
  never did, not for a minute, fired Sarah. I'm glad of that
• 3:22:07
  I'm going away later on. I felt bad enough when you refused to marry
• 3:22:11
  me, Sarah, but it's well that you didn't. I'm mad enough to
• 3:22:13
  be thankful my troubles don't fall on you. Sarah stopped and turned to him.
• 3:22:18
  Beyond them, the lane opened into a field, and a clear lake
• 3:22:22
  of Croaker's sky cast a dim light into the shadow where they stood. Above
• 3:22:26
  it was a new moon, like a gleaming silver scimitar. Sarah saw it
• 3:22:30
  was over her left shoulder, and she saw Leeg's face above her tender and
• 3:22:33
  troubled light. She said, softly, Do you love me still? You
• 3:22:37
  know I do, said Leege sadly. That was all Sarah wanted. With
• 3:22:43
  a quick movement, she nestled into his arms and laid her warm, tear
• 3:22:46
  wet cheek against his cold one. When the amazing rumor that Sarah was going
• 3:22:50
  to marry Lee Baxter and go out west with him circulated through the Andrews clan,
• 3:22:54
  hands were lifted and heads were shaken, Missus Jonas puffed and panted up
• 3:22:58
  the hill to learn if it were true. She found Missus Ebbans stitching for
• 3:23:03
  Dear Life on an Irish chain quilt. While Sarah was sewing the diamonds on
• 3:23:07
  another rising star with a martyr like expression on her face. Sarah hated patchwork
• 3:23:11
  above everything else, but Missus Ebban was mistress up to a certain point.
• 3:23:16
  You'll have to make that quilt, Sarah, Andrews. If you're going to
• 3:23:20
  live out on those prairies, you'll need piles of quilts, and you shall
• 3:23:22
  have them, if I see my fingers to the bone. But you'll have
• 3:23:26
  to help make them, and Sarah had to. When missus Jonas came,
• 3:23:31
  Missus Ebbans sent Sarah off to the post office to get her out of the
• 3:23:33
  way. I suppose it's true this time, said missus Jonas. Yes,
• 3:23:37
  indeed, said missus Ebban briskly. Sarah is set on it. There is
• 3:23:41
  no use trying to move her, you know that, So I've just concluded
• 3:23:46
  to make the best of it. I'm no turncoat. Lyg Baxter is Lydge
• 3:23:50
  Baxter still, neither more nor less. I've always said he's a fine young
• 3:23:54
  man, and I say so still. After all, he and Sarah won't
• 3:23:56
  be any poorer than even if I were. When we started out. Missus
• 3:24:01
  Jonas heaved a sigh of relief. I'm really glad you take that view of
• 3:24:05
  it, Louisa. I'm not displeased either, although Missus Harmon would take my
• 3:24:09
  head off if she heard me say so. I always liked Leech, but
• 3:24:13
  I must say I'm amazed too, after the way Sarah used to rain at
• 3:24:16
  him. Well, we might have expected it, said Missus Evans, sagely.
• 3:24:22
  It was always Sarah's way when any creature got sick or unfortunate, she
• 3:24:26
  seemed to take it right into her heart. So you may say large Baxter's
• 3:24:30
  failure was a success after all. End of story nine, Syrah Carew was
• 3:24:37
  waiting for Chester to come home. She sat by the west window of the
• 3:24:41
  kitchen, looking out into the gathering of the shadows, with the expectant immovability
• 3:24:45
  that characterized her. She never twitched or fidgeted into whatever she did. She
• 3:24:50
  put the whole force of her nature. If it was sitting still, she
• 3:24:54
  sat still, a stun image would be twitchedly beside Tara, said Missus Simp
• 3:25:00
  dear White, her neighbor across the lane. It gets on my nerves the
• 3:25:03
  way she sits at the window, sometimes with no more motion than a statue,
• 3:25:09
  And her great eyes burning down the lane. When I read the commandment,
• 3:25:13
  thou shalt have no other gods before me, I declare, I always
• 3:25:18
  think of Tire. She were ships, that son of hers, far ahead
• 3:25:22
  of her creator. She will be punished for it. Yet Missus White was
• 3:25:26
  watching Thara, now, knitting furiously as she watched in order to lose no
• 3:25:31
  time. Tara's hands were folded idly in her lap. She had not moved
• 3:25:35
  the muscles since she sat down. Missus White complained that gave her the weeps.
• 3:25:39
  It doesn't seem natural to see a woman sit so still, she said.
• 3:25:46
  Sometimes the thought comes to me, what if she's had a stroke like
• 3:25:50
  her old uncle Ratio, and is sitting there stone dead. The evening was
• 3:25:56
  cold and autumnal. There was a fiery red spot out at sea where the
• 3:26:00
  sun had set, and above it, over a chill clear saffron sky,
• 3:26:03
  were wreaths of purple black clouds. The river below the Karoo homestead was livid.
• 3:26:09
  Beyond it, the sea was dark and brooding. It was an evening
• 3:26:13
  to make most people shiver and forebode an early winter. But Thyra loved it
• 3:26:16
  as she loved all stern, harshly beautiful things. She would not light a
• 3:26:20
  lamp because it would blot out the savage grandeur of sea and sky. It
• 3:26:26
  was better to wait in the darkness until Chester came home. He was late
• 3:26:30
  to night. She thought he had been detained over time at the harbor,
• 3:26:33
  for she was not anxious. He would come straight home to her as soon
• 3:26:35
  as his business was completed. Of that, she felt sure. Her thoughts
• 3:26:39
  went out along the bleak Harbor road to meet him. She could see him
• 3:26:43
  plainly coming, with his free stride through the sandy hollows and over the windy
• 3:26:46
  hills in the harsh cold light of that forbidding sunset, strong and handsome in
• 3:26:52
  his comely youth, with her own deeply cleft chin and his father's dark gray,
• 3:26:56
  straightforward eyes. No other woman in Avonlea had a sun like hers,
• 3:27:00
  her only one. In his brief absences, she yearned after him with a
• 3:27:03
  maternal passion that had in it something of physical pain. So intense was it.
• 3:27:09
  She thought of Cynthia White, knitting across the road with contemptuous pity that
• 3:27:13
  woman had no son, nothing but pale faced girls. Sara had never wanted
• 3:27:18
  a daughter, but she pitied and despised all sunless women. Chester's dog whined
• 3:27:24
  suddenly and piercingly on the doorstep outside. He was tired of the cold stone
• 3:27:28
  and wanted his warm corner beside the stove. Thira smiled grimly when she heard
• 3:27:33
  him. She had no intention of letting him in. She said she had
• 3:27:37
  always disliked dogs. But the truth, although she would not glance at it,
• 3:27:41
  was that she hated the animal because Chester loved him. She could not
• 3:27:45
  share his love with even a dumb brute. She loved no living creature in
• 3:27:48
  the world but her son, and fiercely demanded a like concentrated affection from him.
• 3:27:54
  Hence it pleased her to hear his dog whine. It was now quite
• 3:27:58
  dark. The stars had begun to sh iron out over the shorn harvest fields,
• 3:28:01
  and Chester had not come across the lane. Cynthia White had pulled down
• 3:28:05
  her blind in despair of out watching Thyra, and had lighted a lamp.
• 3:28:09
  Lively shadows, a little girl's shapes passed and repassed on the pale oblong of
• 3:28:15
  light. They made fire. Conscious of her exceeding loneliness, she had just
• 3:28:18
  decided that she would walk down the lane and wait for Chester. On the
• 3:28:22
  bridge. When a thunderous knock came at the east kitchen door, she recognized
• 3:28:26
  August Vaust's knock and lighted a lamp in no great haste, for she did
• 3:28:31
  not like him. He was a gossip, and Thyra hated gossip in man
• 3:28:35
  or woman, but August was privileged. She carried the lamp in her hand
• 3:28:39
  when she went to the door, and its upward striking light gave her face
• 3:28:41
  a ghastly appearance. She did not mean to ask August in, but he
• 3:28:46
  pushed past her cheerfully, not waiting to be invited. He was a midget
• 3:28:50
  of a man, lame of foot and hunched of back, with a white
• 3:28:52
  boyish face despite his middle age and deep set, malicious black eyes. He
• 3:28:58
  pulled a crumpled newspaper from his pocket and handed it to Thyra. He was
• 3:29:01
  the unofficial mail carrier of Avonlea. Most of the people gave him a trifle
• 3:29:07
  for bringing their letters and papers from the office. He earned small sums in
• 3:29:09
  various other ways, and so contrived to keep the life in his stunted body.
• 3:29:15
  There was always a venom in August's gossip. It was said that he
• 3:29:18
  made more mischief than Avonlea in a day than was made otherwise in a year.
• 3:29:22
  But people tolerated him by reason of his infirmity. To be sure,
• 3:29:26
  it was the tolerance they gave to inferior creatures, and August felt this.
• 3:29:30
  Perhaps it accounted for a good deal of his malignity. He hated most those
• 3:29:33
  who were kindest to him, and of these Thyra carew above all. He
• 3:29:37
  hated Chester too, as he hated strong, shapely creatures. His time had
• 3:29:41
  come at last to wound them both, and his exultation shone through his crooked
• 3:29:46
  body and pinched features like an illuminating lamp. Thyra perceived it and vaguely felt
• 3:29:52
  something antagonistic in it. She pointed to the rocking chair as she might have
• 3:29:56
  pointed out a mat to a dog. August crawled into it and smiled.
• 3:30:00
  He was going to make her writhe presently this woman, who looked down upon
• 3:30:03
  him with some venomous creeping thing she disdained to crush with her foot. Did
• 3:30:07
  you see anything of Chester on the road, asked Sara, giving August the
• 3:30:11
  very opening he desired. He went to the harbor after tea to see Joe
• 3:30:15
  Raymond about the loan of his boat. But it's the time you should be
• 3:30:18
  back. I can't think what keeps the boy. That's what keeps moss Man
• 3:30:24
  living out Creatures like me at some time or other in their lives. A
• 3:30:26
  girl, a pretty girl, Tira. He pleases me to look at her,
• 3:30:31
  even haunts back in news his eyes up. Oh, she's a rare
• 3:30:35
  one. What is the man talking about, said Sarah, wonderingly. The
• 3:30:39
  Mary is Garland, to be sure, Chester is down, and Tom Lair
• 3:30:43
  is now talking to her and looking more than his tongue says too. Of
• 3:30:48
  that, you may be sure. Well, well, we were young ones,
• 3:30:50
  Tyra, all young ones, even quick little August wars Uh, Now
• 3:30:56
  what do you mean? Said Sarah. She had sat down in a chair
• 3:31:00
  before him, with her hands folded in her lap. Her face, always
• 3:31:03
  pale, had not changed, but her lips were curiously white. August Vaugh
• 3:31:07
  saw this, and it pleased him. Also, her eyes were worth looking
• 3:31:11
  at if you liked to hurt people, and that was the only pleasure August
• 3:31:15
  took in life. He would drink this delightful cup of revenge for her long
• 3:31:18
  years of disdainful kindness. Ah. He would drink it slowly to prolong its
• 3:31:22
  sweetness. Sip by sip. He rubbed his long, thin white hands together,
• 3:31:28
  sip by sip, tasting each mouthful. And now you know, Melida,
• 3:31:33
  Sarah, I know nothing of what you would be at August Vorst.
• 3:31:37
  You speak of my son and Domris. Was that a name? Tomari's garland,
• 3:31:41
  as if they were something to each other. I ask you what you
• 3:31:45
  mean by it, too, Tara. Nothing very terrible. There's no need
• 3:31:48
  to look like that about it. Yeh mag. We'll be young man to
• 3:31:52
  the end of time. And there's no harm in Tester liking to look at
• 3:31:54
  a lass. Now. I ain't talking to for either the little bag and
• 3:31:58
  the red lips on her. She ain't Chester will make a pretty pair.
• 3:32:03
  He's not so well looking for an aunt, Tira. I am not a
• 3:32:07
  very patient woman, August said Sarah coldly. I have asked you what you
• 3:32:11
  mean, and I want a straight answer. It's just down a dumb bliss.
• 3:32:16
  While I have been sitting here alone waiting for him. August nodded.
• 3:32:20
  He saw that it would not be wise to trifle longer with Sarah that he
• 3:32:24
  is. I was there before I came here. He and the marriage were
• 3:32:26
  sitting in the corner by themselves in very well satisfied. They seemed to be
• 3:32:31
  with each other. Dude, dear Tyra, don't take the news, so
• 3:32:35
  I thought you knew. It's no secret that Chester has been going after the
• 3:32:37
  marriage ever since she came here. But then you can't tie him to your
• 3:32:41
  oprin strings forever. Woman, You'll be fine that the man for himself as
• 3:32:46
  he shoot, seeing that he's straight and well shaped, no dowt the marriage
• 3:32:50
  will look a favor on him. Old Martha Blair declares, the girl loves
• 3:32:54
  him better than her eyes. Sarah made a sound like a strangled moan in
• 3:32:58
  the mid of august speech. She heard the rest of it immovably. When
• 3:33:03
  it came to the end, she stood and looked down upon him in a
• 3:33:05
  way that silenced him. You've told the news you came to tell and gloated
• 3:33:11
  over it. And now get you gone, she said, slowly. Now,
• 3:33:16
  Darrah, he began, but she interrupted him threateningly. Get you gone,
• 3:33:20
  I say, and you need not bring my mail hair any longer.
• 3:33:24
  I want no more of your misshapen body and lying tongue. August went,
• 3:33:28
  but at the door he turned for a parting step. My tongue is not
• 3:33:33
  a lying one, Missus Gerou. I've told you the truth as Olavonian knows
• 3:33:37
  it. Jester is mad about the marriage Garland. It's no wonder. I
• 3:33:43
  thought you knew what all the settlement can see. But you are such a
• 3:33:46
  jealous, odd buddy. I suppose the boy heard it from you, for
• 3:33:50
  fear you'd go into a tan train. That's for me. I'll not forget
• 3:33:54
  that you've turned me from your door, because I chanced to bring you news
• 3:33:56
  you'd know Faci for Thard not answer him. When the door closed behind him,
• 3:34:01
  she locked it and blew out the light. Then she threw herself face
• 3:34:05
  downward on the sofa and burst into wild tears. Her very soul ached.
• 3:34:09
  She wept as tempestuously and unreasoningly as a youth weeps, although she was not
• 3:34:13
  young. It seemed as if she was afraid to stop weeping lest she should
• 3:34:18
  go mad thinking. But after a time, tears failed her, and she
• 3:34:22
  began bitterly to go over word by word what august Vast had said, that
• 3:34:26
  her son should ever cast eyes of love on any girl we was something Thara
• 3:34:30
  had never thought about. She would not believe it possible that he should love
• 3:34:33
  any one but herself, who loved him so much, And now the possibility
• 3:34:37
  invaded her mind as subtly and coldly and remorselessly as a sea fog stealing landward.
• 3:34:45
  Chester had been born to her at an age when most women are letting
• 3:34:46
  their children slip from them into the world, with some natural tears and heart
• 3:34:50
  aches, but content to let them go after enjoying their sweetest years. Thyra's
• 3:34:56
  late come motherhood was all the more intense and passionate because of its very life.
• 3:35:01
  She had been very ill when her son was born, and had lain
• 3:35:03
  helpless for long weeks, during which other women had tended her baby for her.
• 3:35:07
  She had never been able to forgive them for this. Her husband had
• 3:35:11
  died before Chester was a year old. She had laid their son in his
• 3:35:13
  dying arms and received him back again with the last benediction to Thara. That
• 3:35:18
  moment had something of a sacrament in it. It was as if the child
• 3:35:22
  had been doubly given to her, with a right to him solely that nothing
• 3:35:26
  could take away or transcend. Marrying. She had never thought of it in
• 3:35:31
  connection with him. He did not come of a marrying race. His father
• 3:35:35
  had been sixty when he had married her Sarah Lincoln likewise well on in life.
• 3:35:39
  Few of the Lincolns or Carews had married young, many not at all.
• 3:35:43
  And to her Chester was her baby. Still he belonged solely to her.
• 3:35:48
  And now another woman had dared to look upon him with eyes of love.
• 3:35:52
  De Marus Garland Thara now remembered seeing her. She was a newcomer in
• 3:35:56
  Avonlea, having come to live with her uncle and aunt after the day of
• 3:36:00
  her mother. Sia had met her on the bridge one day a mother previously.
• 3:36:03
  Yes, a man might think she was pretty, a low browed girl
• 3:36:07
  with a wave of British gold hair and crimson lips blossoming out against the strange
• 3:36:11
  milk whiteness of her skin. Her eyes, too, Thara recalled them,
• 3:36:16
  hazel in tint, deep and laughter brimmed. The girl had gone past her
• 3:36:20
  with a smile that brought out many dimples. There was a certain insolent quality
• 3:36:24
  in her beauty, as if it flaunted itself somewhat too defiantly in the beholder's
• 3:36:26
  eye. Sara had turned and looked after the lithe young creature, wondering who
• 3:36:31
  she might be, and to night while she his mother, waited for him
• 3:36:35
  in darkness and loneliness. He was down at Blair's talking to this girl.
• 3:36:39
  He loved her, and it was past doubt that she loved him. The
• 3:36:43
  thought was more bitter than death to Thyra that she should dare. Her anger
• 3:36:48
  was all against the girl. She had laid a snare to get Chester,
• 3:36:52
  and he, like a fool, was entangled in its thinking man fashion.
• 3:36:56
  Only of her great eyes and red lips, Sarah thought savagely of de Marus's
• 3:37:01
  beauty. She shall not have him, she said, with slow emphasis.
• 3:37:05
  I will never give him up to any other woman, and least of all
• 3:37:11
  to her. She would leave me no place in his heart at all,
• 3:37:15
  me, his mother, who almost died to give him life. He belongs
• 3:37:18
  to me. Let her look for the sun of some other woman, some
• 3:37:22
  woman who has many sons. She shall not have my only one. She
• 3:37:26
  got up, wrapped a shawl about her head, and went out into the
• 3:37:30
  darkly golden evening. The clouds had cleared away and the moon was shining.
• 3:37:35
  The air was chill with a bell like clearness. The alders by the river
• 3:37:39
  rustled eerily as she walked by them, and out upon the bridge, here
• 3:37:41
  she paced up and down, peering with troubled eyes along the road beyond,
• 3:37:46
  or leaning over the rail, looking at the sparkling silver ribbon of moonlight that
• 3:37:50
  garlanded the waters. Late travelers passed her and wondered at her presence, and
• 3:37:54
  Mien Carl White saw her and told his wife about her. When he got
• 3:37:58
  home, rid to and fro over the bridge like mad. At first I
• 3:38:03
  thought it was old crazy May Blair. What do you suppose she was doing
• 3:38:07
  down there at this hour of the night, watching for chance? No doubt,
• 3:38:11
  said Cynthia. He ain't home yet. Likely he's a snug at the
• 3:38:16
  Blairs. I do wonder if she tire is suspicious that he calls after Mars.
• 3:38:22
  I've never dared to hint into her. She'd be as liable to fly
• 3:38:28
  at me, tlute and claw as not. Well. She picks out a
• 3:38:31
  precious queer night for moon gazing, said Kyle, who was a dully soul
• 3:38:35
  and took life as he found it. It's bitter cold, there'll be a
• 3:38:41
  hard frost. It's a pity she can't get it grained into her that the
• 3:38:45
  boy is grown up and must have his fling like the other lads, Jogo
• 3:38:50
  ought of her mind. Yet, like her old grandmother Lincoln, if she
• 3:38:54
  doesn't ease up, I have a notion to go down to the bridge and
• 3:38:58
  reason a bit with her. Indeed, and you will do no such thing,
• 3:39:03
  cried Cynthia. Tyra Carewey is best left alone. If she isn't a
• 3:39:09
  tund room, She's like no other woman in Avonlea or out a bit.
• 3:39:13
  I'd as soon meddle with the tigers. For if she is rampanging about Chester,
• 3:39:20
  I don't envy the Marius Garland her life. If she goes in there,
• 3:39:24
  Tara the sooner strangle her that not. I guess you women are all
• 3:39:30
  terrible hord on Vira, said carlgod naturedly. He had been in love with
• 3:39:33
  Sara himself long ago, and he still liked her in a friendly fashion.
• 3:39:37
  He alway stood up for her when the Avonlea women ran her down. He
• 3:39:41
  felt troubled about her all night, recalling her as she paced the bridge,
• 3:39:45
  he wished he had gone back in spite of Cynthia. When Chester came home,
• 3:39:48
  he met his mother on the bridge in the faint yet penetrating moonlight.
• 3:39:52
  They looked curiously alike, but Chester had the milder face. He was very
• 3:39:56
  handsome. Even in the seething of her pain and jealousy. Thiy yearned over
• 3:40:00
  his beauty. She would have liked to put her hands up and caress his
• 3:40:03
  face, but her voice was very hard when she asked him where he had
• 3:40:05
  been so late. I called in at Tom Blair's on my way home from
• 3:40:09
  the harbor, he answered, trying to walk on, but she held him
• 3:40:13
  back by his arm. Did you go there to sue de Marris, she
• 3:40:16
  demanded fiercely. Chester was uncomfortable. Much as he loved his mother, he
• 3:40:20
  felt and always had felt an awe of her and an impatient dislike of her
• 3:40:24
  dramatic ways of speaking and acting. He reflected resentfully that no other young man
• 3:40:30
  in Avonlea who had been paying a friendly call would be met by his mother
• 3:40:33
  at midnight and held up in such a tragic fashion. To account for himself,
• 3:40:37
  he tried vainly to loosen her hold upon his arm, but he understood
• 3:40:41
  quite well that he must give her an answer. Being strictly straightforward by nature
• 3:40:45
  and upbringing, he told the truth, albeit with more anger in his tone
• 3:40:48
  than he had ever shown to his mother before yes, he said shortly.
• 3:40:52
  Sarah released his arm and struck her hands together with a sharp cry. There
• 3:40:56
  was a savage note in it. She could have slain Tamarus Gar at that
• 3:41:00
  moment. Don't go on, so mother, said Chester impatiently. Come in
• 3:41:05
  out of the call. It isn't fit for you to be here. Who's
• 3:41:07
  been tampering with you? What if I did go to see damars? Oh?
• 3:41:11
  Oh, oh, cried Sara. I was waiting for you alone,
• 3:41:16
  and you were thinking only of her? Chester, answer me, do you
• 3:41:22
  love her? The blood rolled rapidly over the boy's face. He muttered something
• 3:41:26
  and tried to pass on, but she caught him again. He forced himself
• 3:41:30
  to speak gently. What if I do, mother, it wouldn't be such
• 3:41:33
  a dreadful thing, would it? And me? And me cried Thara,
• 3:41:37
  what am I to you? Then? You're my mother. I wouldn't love
• 3:41:43
  you any less because I cared for another too. I won't have you love
• 3:41:46
  another, she cried. I want to hold your love. Oh what's that
• 3:41:50
  baby face to you? Compared to your mother? I have the best write
• 3:41:54
  to you. I won't give you up. Chester realized that there was no
• 3:41:58
  arguing with such a mood. He walked on, resolved to set the matter
• 3:42:01
  aside until she might be more reasonable. But Sara would not have it,
• 3:42:05
  so she followed on after him, under the alders that crowded over the lane.
• 3:42:09
  Promise me that you lost go there again, she entreated. Promise me
• 3:42:13
  that she will give her up. I can't promise such a thing, he
• 3:42:16
  cried angrily. His anger hurt her worse than a blow, but she did
• 3:42:20
  not flinch. You're not engaged to her, she cried out. Now,
• 3:42:24
  mother, be quiet. All the settlement will hear you. Why do you
• 3:42:28
  object to Damarus. You don't know how sweet she is. When you know
• 3:42:31
  her, I will never know her, cried Sara furiously. And she shall
• 3:42:35
  not have you, She shall not Chester. He made no answer. Suddenly
• 3:42:41
  she broke into tears and loud sobs. Touched with remorse, he stopped and
• 3:42:45
  put his arms about her. Mother. Mother, don't I can't bear to
• 3:42:48
  see you cry so But indeed you are unreasonable. Didn't you ever think the
• 3:42:52
  time would come when I would want to marry like other men? No,
• 3:42:56
  no, I know a lot of it. I can not bear it.
• 3:43:00
  Chester. You must promise not to go to see her again. I won't
• 3:43:03
  go into the house this night until you do. I'll stay out here in
• 3:43:07
  the bitter cold until you promise to put her out of your thoughts. That's
• 3:43:11
  beyond my power. Mother, Oh mother, you're making it hard for me.
• 3:43:16
  Come in, Come in. You're shivering with cold. Now, you'll
• 3:43:18
  be sick not to step while I stir till you promise, say you won't
• 3:43:24
  go to see that girl anymore. And there's nothing I want do for you.
• 3:43:28
  But if you put her before me, I'll not go in. I
• 3:43:31
  never will go in. With most women this would have been an empty threat,
• 3:43:35
  but it was not so with Thyra, and Chester knew it. He
• 3:43:37
  knew she would keep her word, and he feared more than that in this
• 3:43:41
  frenzy of hers what might she not do? She came of a strange breed,
• 3:43:46
  as had been said disapprovingly when Luke Carew married her. There was a
• 3:43:48
  strain of insanity in the Lincolns. A Lincoln woman had drowned herself. Once
• 3:43:54
  Chester thought of the river and grew sick with fright. For a moment,
• 3:43:56
  even his passion for Damarus wakened before the old attie. Mother, calm yourself,
• 3:44:01
  Oh surely, there's no need for all of this. Let us wait
• 3:44:05
  until tomorrow and talk it over. Then I'll hear all you have to say.
• 3:44:09
  Come in, dear Thyra loosened her arms from about him and stepped back
• 3:44:13
  into a moonlit space, Looking at him tragically, she extended her arms and
• 3:44:18
  spoke slowly and solemnly, Chester, choose between us. If you choose her,
• 3:44:22
  I shall go from you to night, and you will never see me
• 3:44:26
  again. Mother cheoce, she reiterated fiercely. He felt her long ascendency its
• 3:44:33
  influence was not to be shaken off in a moment. In all his life,
• 3:44:35
  he had never disobeyed her. Besides, with it all, he loved
• 3:44:39
  her more deeply and understandingly than most sons love their mothers. He realized that
• 3:44:43
  since she would have it so, his choice was already made, or rather
• 3:44:46
  that he had no choice. Have it your way, he said, sullenly.
• 3:44:50
  She ran to him and caught him to her heart. In the reaction
• 3:44:54
  of her feeling, she was half laughing, half crying. All was well
• 3:44:58
  again, All would be well. She never did at this, for she
• 3:45:00
  knew he would keep his ungracious promise. Sacredly, Oh, my son,
• 3:45:05
  my son. She murmured, you have sent me to my death if you
• 3:45:09
  have chosen otherwise. But now you are mine again. She did not heed
• 3:45:13
  that he was sullen, that he resented her unjustice with all her own intensity.
• 3:45:18
  She did not heed his silence as they went into the house together.
• 3:45:22
  Strangely enough, she slept well and soundly that night. Not until many days
• 3:45:26
  had passed did she understand that though Chester might keep his promise to the letter,
• 3:45:31
  it was beyond his power to keep it in the spirit. She had
• 3:45:35
  taken him from Demarus Garland, but she had not won him back to herself.
• 3:45:39
  He could never be wholly her son again. There was a barrier between
• 3:45:41
  them which not all her passionate love could break down. Chester was gravely kind
• 3:45:46
  to her, for it was not in his nature to remain sullen long or
• 3:45:50
  to visit his own unhappiness upon another's head. Besides, he understood her exacting
• 3:45:54
  affection, even in its injustice. And it has been well said that to
• 3:45:58
  understand is to forgive. But he avoided her, and she knew it.
• 3:46:01
  The flame of her anger burned bitterly towards de Mars. He thinks of her
• 3:46:07
  all the time. She moaned to herself, He'll come to hate me at
• 3:46:11
  I fare, because it's I who made him give her up. But I'd
• 3:46:15
  rather even that and share him with another woman. Oh, my son,
• 3:46:20
  my son. She knew that de Marius was suffering too. The girl's wan
• 3:46:24
  face told that when she met her. But this pleased Barra. It eased
• 3:46:28
  the ache in her bitter heart to know that pain was gnawing at de Mars.
• 3:46:31
  Also. Chester was absent from home very often now. He spent much
• 3:46:35
  of his spare time at the harbor, consorting with Joe Raymond and others of
• 3:46:37
  that ilk, who were but sorry associates for him. Avonlea people thought.
• 3:46:41
  In late November, he and Joe started for a trip down the coast in
• 3:46:45
  the latter's boat. Tharra protested against it, but Chester laughed at her alarm.
• 3:46:50
  Thara saw him go with a heart sick from fear. She hated the
• 3:46:52
  sea and was afraid of it at any time, but most of all in
• 3:46:56
  this treacherous month, with its wild sudden gales. Chester had been fond of
• 3:47:01
  the sea from boyhood. She had always tried to stifle this fondness and break
• 3:47:05
  off his associations with the harbor fisherman who liked to lure the high spirited boy
• 3:47:09
  out with them on fishing expeditions, but her power over him was gone now.
• 3:47:13
  After Chester's departure, she was restless and miserable, wandering from window to
• 3:47:18
  window to scan the dour, unsmiling sky. Carl White, dropping into pay
• 3:47:22
  a call, was alarmed when he heard that Chester had gone with Joe and
• 3:47:26
  had not tact enough to conceal his alarm from Thyra. Tisn't safe this time
• 3:47:31
  a year, he said, Fols expect no better from that reckless harum's kerrum
• 3:47:35
  Joe Raymond. You'll drowned himself some day. There's nothing sure. This mad
• 3:47:41
  freak of starting off down the shore November is just of a piece with his
• 3:47:46
  usual performances. But you shouldn't have let Chester go, Thyrah. I couldn't
• 3:47:52
  prevent him, Say what I could, He would go, he laughed when
• 3:47:56
  I spoke of danger. Oh he's changed from what he was. I know
• 3:48:01
  who has wrought the change, and I hate her for it. Karl shrugged
• 3:48:05
  his fat shoulders. He knew quite well that Thia was at the bottom of
• 3:48:09
  the sudden coldness between Chester carew and to Mars Garland, about which Avonlea gossip
• 3:48:13
  was busying itself. He pitied Thyra too. She had aged rapidly the past
• 3:48:16
  month. You're too hard on Chester, Thyra. He's out of leading strings
• 3:48:24
  now, or should be. You must just let me take an old friend's
• 3:48:28
  privilege and tell you that you're taking the wrong way with him. You're too
• 3:48:33
  jealous and exacting, Thara. You don't know anything about it. You have
• 3:48:39
  never had a son, said Thyra cruelly enough, for she knew that Karl's
• 3:48:43
  sunlessness was a rankling thorn in his mind. You don't know what it is
• 3:48:46
  to pour out your love on one human being and have it flung back in
• 3:48:50
  your face. Karl could not cope with Thyra's moods. He had never understood
• 3:48:56
  her, even in his youth. Now he went home, shrugging his shoulders
• 3:49:00
  and thinking that it was a good thing Sara had not looked on him with
• 3:49:01
  favor in the old days. Cynthia was much easier to get along with,
• 3:49:05
  more than Sarah looked anxiously to see and sky. That night in Avonlea,
• 3:49:09
  De Marus Garland listened to the smother row of the Atlantic in the murky northeast
• 3:49:13
  with the precience of coming disaster. Friendly longshoremen shook their heads and said that
• 3:49:18
  Chess and Joe would better have kept a good dry land. It's sorry work
• 3:49:22
  jokinn with a November gale, said Abel Blair. He was an old man
• 3:49:26
  and in his life had seen some sad things along the shore. Sara could
• 3:49:31
  not sleep that night. When the gale came shrieking up the river and struck
• 3:49:35
  the house, She got out of bed and dressed herself. The wind screamed
• 3:49:39
  like a ravening beast at her window all night. She wandered to and fro
• 3:49:43
  in the house, going from room to room, now wringing her hands with
• 3:49:46
  loud outcries, now praying below her breath, with white lips, now listening
• 3:49:50
  in dumb misery to the fury of the storm. The wind had raged all
• 3:49:54
  the next day, but spent itself in the following night, and the second
• 3:49:58
  morning was calm and fair. The eastern sky was a great arc of crystal,
• 3:50:01
  smitten through with auroral crimsonings. Sara, looking from her kitchen window,
• 3:50:07
  saw a group of men on the bridge. They were talking to Carl White,
• 3:50:09
  with looks and gestures directed towards the Carew house. She went out and
• 3:50:13
  down to them. None of these who saw her white, rigid face that
• 3:50:16
  day ever forgot the sight. You have news for me, she said.
• 3:50:20
  They looked at each other, each man mutely imploring his neighbor to speak.
• 3:50:24
  Can need not fare to tell me, said Sara, calmly. I know
• 3:50:28
  what you have come to say. My son is drowned. We don't know
• 3:50:31
  that, missus Carew, said Abel Blair quickly. We haven't got the worst
• 3:50:37
  to tell you. There's hope yet, But Joe Raymond's boat was found last
• 3:50:41
  night, stratted bottom up on the Blue Point Sand shore, four a miles
• 3:50:46
  down the coast. Don't look like that, Vira, said Carl White,
• 3:50:50
  pityingly. They may have escaped, they may have been picked up. Sara
• 3:50:54
  looked at him with dull eyes. You know they have not. No one
• 3:50:58
  of you has an hope. I have no son. The sea has taken
• 3:51:03
  him from me, my bonny baby. She turned and went back to her
• 3:51:05
  desolate home. None dared follow her. Carl White went home and sent his
• 3:51:09
  wife over to her. Cynthia found Thyra sitting in her accustomed chair, Her
• 3:51:15
  hands lay palm uputs on her lap. Her eyes were dry and burning.
• 3:51:18
  She met Cynthia's compassionate look with a fearful smile. Long ago, Cynthia White,
• 3:51:24
  she said, slowly, you were vexed with me one day, and
• 3:51:28
  you told me that God would punish me. Yet, because I made an
• 3:51:31
  idol of my son and set it up in his place, do you remember
• 3:51:37
  your word was a true one. God saw that I loved Chester too much,
• 3:51:41
  and he meant to take him from me. I thwarted one way when
• 3:51:46
  I made him give up to Marris, But one can't fight against the Almighty.
• 3:51:50
  It was decreed that I must loose him, if not in one way,
• 3:51:54
  then in another. He has been taken from me utterly. I shall
• 3:51:58
  not even have his grave to tend to. As near to a mad woman
• 3:52:03
  as anything you ever saw with her awful eyes, Cynthia told Karl afterwards,
• 3:52:09
  but she did not say so there. Although she was a shallow, commonplace
• 3:52:13
  soul, she had her share of womanly sympathy, and her own life had
• 3:52:16
  not been free from suffering. It taught her the right thing to do.
• 3:52:18
  Now. She sat down by the stricken creature and put her arms about her
• 3:52:24
  while she gathered the cold hands in her own warm clasp. The tears filled
• 3:52:28
  her big blue eyes, and her voice trembled as she said, Sarah,
• 3:52:31
  I'm sorry for you. I I lost a child once. My Fletto,
• 3:52:37
  first born in Chester, was a dear, good lad For a moment,
• 3:52:43
  Thyra strained her small, tense body away from Cynthia's embrace. Then she shuddered
• 3:52:46
  and cried out. The tears came, and she wept her agony out on
• 3:52:50
  the other woman's breast. As the ill news spread, other Avonlea women kept
• 3:52:54
  dropping in all through the day to condole with Thyra. Many of them came
• 3:52:58
  in real sympathy, but some out of mere curiosity to see how she took
• 3:53:01
  it. Thara knew this, but she did not resent it as she would
• 3:53:05
  once have done. She listened very quietly to all the halting efforts at consolation
• 3:53:09
  and the little platitudes with which they strove to cover the nakedness of bereavement.
• 3:53:15
  When darkness came, Cynthia said she must go home, but she would send
• 3:53:18
  one of her girls over for the night. You want few like staying alone,
• 3:53:22
  she said. Sara looked up steadily. No, but I wanted to
• 3:53:28
  send for Damara's Garland, the Mariscarland. Cynthia repeated the name as if disbelieving
• 3:53:33
  her own ears. There was never any knowing what whim Thara might take,
• 3:53:37
  but Cynthia had not expected this. Yes, tell her, I want her,
• 3:53:41
  Tell her she must come. She must hate me bitterly, but I
• 3:53:46
  am punished enough to satisfy even her hate. Tell her to come to me.
• 3:53:50
  For Chester's sake. Cynthia did as she was bid. She sent her
• 3:53:54
  daughter Jeanette for Damarus. Then she waited, no matter what duties were calling
• 3:53:58
  for her at home. She must see the interview between beween Thyra and de
• 3:54:00
  Mars. Her curiosity would be the last thing to fail Cynthia White. She
• 3:54:05
  had done very well all day, but it would be asking too much of
• 3:54:07
  her to expect that she would consider the meeting of these two women sacred from
• 3:54:11
  her eyes. She half believed Damarus would refuse to come, but de Mars
• 3:54:15
  came. Jeanette brought her in amid the fiery glow of a November sunset.
• 3:54:20
  Sara stood up, and for a moment they looked at each other. The
• 3:54:22
  insolence of de Marius's beauty was gone. Her eyes were dull and heavy with
• 3:54:26
  weeping. Her lips were pale, and her face had lost its laughter and
• 3:54:30
  dimples. Only her hair, escaping from the shawl she had cast around it,
• 3:54:35
  gushed forth in warm splendor in the sunset light, and framed her face
• 3:54:39
  like the aureole of a madonna. Sara looked upon her with a shock of
• 3:54:43
  remorse. This was not the radiant creature she had met on the bridge that
• 3:54:46
  summer afternoon. This this was her work. She held out her arms.
• 3:54:52
  Oh to Maris, forgive me. We both loved him. That must be
• 3:54:56
  at a bond between us for life. Demares came forward through her arms about
• 3:55:00
  the older woman, lifting her face as their lips met. Even Cynthia White
• 3:55:05
  realized that she had no business there. She vented the irritation of her embarrassment
• 3:55:07
  on the innocent Jeannette. Come away, she whispered, crossly, can't you
• 3:55:13
  see we are not wanted to hear? She drew Jeannette out, leaving Thara,
• 3:55:16
  rocking de Mars in her arms and crooning over her like a mother over
• 3:55:20
  her child. When December had grown old, de Mars was still with Thyra.
• 3:55:24
  It was understood that she was to remain there for the winter. At
• 3:55:26
  least Thara could not bear her to be out of her sight. They talked
• 3:55:31
  constantly about Chester. Thyra confessed all her anger and hatred. Demarus had forgiven
• 3:55:37
  her, but Thyra could never forgive herself. She was greatly changed and had
• 3:55:41
  grown very gentle and tender. She even sent for August Vaust and begged him
• 3:55:46
  to pardon her for the way she had spoken to him. Winter came late
• 3:55:50
  that year, and the season was a very open one. There was no
• 3:55:52
  snow on the ground, and a month after Joe Raymond's boat had been cast
• 3:55:56
  up on the Blue Point Sand shore, Thyra, wandering about in her garden,
• 3:56:01
  found some pansies blooming under their tangled leaves. She was picking them for
• 3:56:03
  Demarus when she heard a buggy rumble over the bridge and drive up the white
• 3:56:07
  lane, hidden from her sight by the Alders and firs. A few minutes
• 3:56:11
  later, Carl and Cynthia came hastily across their yard under the huge balm of
• 3:56:16
  Gileads. Kyle's face was flushed and his body quivered with excitement. Cynthia ran
• 3:56:22
  behind him with tears rolling down her face. Sara felt herself growing sick with
• 3:56:26
  fear. Had anything happened to Demarus. A glimpse of the girl sewing by
• 3:56:31
  an upper window of the house reassured her. Oh, Tira, Tira,
• 3:56:35
  gasped, Cynthia. Can you stand some good news, Syrah, asked Carl
• 3:56:39
  in a trembling voice. Very very good news. Sara looked wildly from one
• 3:56:46
  to the other. There's but one thing you would dare to call good news
• 3:56:50
  to me, she cried. Is it about about Jester? Yes, it's
• 3:56:54
  about Chester, Thyra. He is alive. He's say He and Joe,
• 3:57:01
  both of them thanked God. Cynthia catch her. No, I'm not going
• 3:57:05
  to faint, said Sarah, setting herself by Cynthia's shoulder. My son alive.
• 3:57:11
  How did you hear? How did it happen? Where has he been?
• 3:57:15
  I heard it down at the harbor, Syrah. Mike mccrardy's vessel,
• 3:57:18
  the Nora Lee, was just in from the Magdalens. Chess and Joe got
• 3:57:24
  capsized the night of the storm, but they hung on to their boat somehow,
• 3:57:28
  and at daybreak they were picked up by the Nora Lee bound for Quebec,
• 3:57:33
  but she was damaged by the storm and blown clear out of her course.
• 3:57:39
  Had to put into the Magdalens for repairs, and has been there ever
• 3:57:41
  since. The cable to the islands was out of order, and no vessels
• 3:57:46
  call there. This time a year for males. If it hadn't been an
• 3:57:50
  extra open season, the Nora Lee wouldn't have gotten away, but would have
• 3:57:54
  had to stay there till spring. You never saw such rejoicing as there was
• 3:57:58
  this morning at the harbor when the Nora Lee came in, flying flags at
• 3:58:03
  the masthead and chester. Where is he? Demanded Sara. Carl and Cynthia
• 3:58:09
  looked at each other. Well, Tara said the latter. The fact is
• 3:58:13
  he's over there in our yard. This blessed a minute. Carl brought him
• 3:58:18
  home from the harbor, but I wouldn't let him come over until we had
• 3:58:24
  prepared you for it. He's waiting for you there. Sara made a quick
• 3:58:28
  step in the direction of the gate. Then she turned, with a little
• 3:58:31
  of the glow dying out of her face. No, does one has a
• 3:58:35
  better right to go to him first. I can atone to him, Thank
• 3:58:39
  God, I can atone him. She went into the house and called to
• 3:58:43
  Marus. As the girl came down the stairs. Sara held out her hands
• 3:58:46
  with a wonderful light of joy and renunciation on her face. Tomorris, she
• 3:58:52
  said, Chester has come back to us. The sea has given him back
• 3:58:54
  to us. He's over at Carl White's house. Go to my daughter and
• 3:59:00
  bring in to me. End of story ten. When Sarah Currey married Jack
• 3:59:05
  Churchill, I was broken hearted, or believed myself to be so, which
• 3:59:11
  in a boy of twenty two amounts to pretty much the same thing. Not
• 3:59:16
  that I took the world into my confidence. That was never the Douglas way,
• 3:59:20
  and I held myself in honor bound to live up to the family traditions.
• 3:59:24
  I thought then that nobody but Sarah knew. But I dare say now
• 3:59:30
  that Jack knew it also, for I don't think Sarah could have helped telling
• 3:59:33
  him if he did know. However, he did not let me see that
• 3:59:37
  he did, and never insulted me by any implied sympathy. On the contrary,
• 3:59:43
  he asked me to be his best man. Jack was always a thoroughbred.
• 3:59:48
  I was best man. Jack and I had always been bosom friends,
• 3:59:52
  and although I had lost my sweetheart, I did not intend to lose my
• 3:59:56
  friend in the bargain. Sarah had made a wise choice for Jack was twice
• 4:00:01
  the man I was. He had had to work for his living, which
• 4:00:03
  perhaps accounts for it. So I danced at Sarah's wedding as if my heart
• 4:00:09
  were as light as my heels. But after she and Jacket settled down at
• 4:00:13
  Lensby, I closed the Maples and went abroad, being, as I have
• 4:00:16
  hinted, one of those unfortunate mortals who need consuled nothing but their own whims
• 4:00:20
  in the matter of time and money. I stayed away for ten years,
• 4:00:26
  during which the Maples was given over to moths and rust. While I enjoyed
• 4:00:30
  life elsewhere, I did enjoy it hugely, but always under protest, for
• 4:00:35
  I felt that a broken hearted man ought not to enjoy himself as I did.
• 4:00:39
  It jarred on my sense of fitness, and I tried to moderate my
• 4:00:43
  zest and think more of the past than I did. It was no use.
• 4:00:48
  The present insisted on being intrusive and pleasant. As for the future,
• 4:00:52
  well, there was no future. Then. Jack Churchill, poor Fellow died.
• 4:01:00
  A year after his death, I went home and again asked Sarah to
• 4:01:03
  marry me, as in duty bound. Sarah again declined, alleging that her
• 4:01:07
  heart was buried in Jack's grave, or words to that effect. I found
• 4:01:13
  that it did not much matter. Of course, at thirty two one does
• 4:01:16
  not take these things to heart. As at twenty two, I had enough
• 4:01:20
  to occupy me in getting the Maples into working order, and began to educate
• 4:01:24
  Betty. Betty was Sarah's ten year old daughter, and she had been thoroughly
• 4:01:28
  spoiled. That is to say, she had been allowed her own way and
• 4:01:31
  everything, and having inherited her father's outdoor taste, had simply run wild.
• 4:01:37
  She was a thorough tomboy, a thin, scrawny little thing with a trace
• 4:01:41
  of Sarah's beauty. Betty took after her father's dark, tall race, and
• 4:01:46
  on the occasion of my first introduction to her, seemed to be all legs
• 4:01:50
  and neck. There were points about her, though, which I considered promising.
• 4:01:56
  She had fine almond shaped hazel eyes, the smallest emotion hands and feet
• 4:02:01
  I ever saw, and two and North's braids of thick nut brown hair.
• 4:02:05
  For Jack's sake, I decided to bring his daughter up properly. Sarah couldn't
• 4:02:09
  do it, and didn't try. I saw that if someone didn't take Betty
• 4:02:13
  in hand wisely and firmly, she would certainly be ruined. There seemed to
• 4:02:18
  be nobody except myself at all interested in the matter. So I determined to
• 4:02:22
  see what an old bachelor could do as regards bringing up a girl in the
• 4:02:26
  way she should go. I might have been her father, as it was
• 4:02:30
  her father had been my best friend, who had a better right to watch
• 4:02:33
  over his daughter. I determined to be a father to Betty and do all
• 4:02:37
  for her that the most devoted parent could do. It was self evidently my
• 4:02:43
  duty. I told Sarah I was going to take Betty in hand. Sarah
• 4:02:48
  sighed one of those plaintive little size which I had once thought so charming,
• 4:02:52
  but now, to my surprise, found faintly irritating, and said that she
• 4:02:56
  would be very much obliged if I would. I feel that I'm not able
• 4:03:00
  to cope with the problem of Betty's education, Stephen, She admitted, Betty
• 4:03:03
  is a strange child, old churchill, poor father, indulsure in everything,
• 4:03:09
  and she is a will of her own. I assure you I'm having no
• 4:03:13
  control over her. Whatever she does as she pleases, and is ruining her
• 4:03:16
  complexion my running and galloping on the doors the whole time, not that she
• 4:03:20
  had much complexion to start with Churchill's never had. Do you know? Sarah
• 4:03:24
  cast a complacent glance at her delicately tinted reflection in the mirror. I tried
• 4:03:28
  to make Betty war sunbonnet this summer, but I might as well have talked
• 4:03:31
  to the wind. A vision of Betty in a sunbonnet presented itself to my
• 4:03:35
  mind and afforded me so much amusement that I was great so Sarah, for
• 4:03:39
  having furnished it, I rewarded her with a compliment. It is to be
• 4:03:45
  regretted that Betty has not inherited her mother's charming color, I said, but
• 4:03:50
  we must do the best we can for her under her limitations. She may
• 4:03:52
  have been proved vastly by the time she has grown up, and at least
• 4:03:58
  we must make a lady of her. She is a most alarming tomboy at
• 4:04:01
  present. But there is good material to work upon. There must be in
• 4:04:05
  the Churchill and Cury blend. But even the best material may be spoiled by
• 4:04:09
  unwise handling. I think I can promise you that I will not spoil it.
• 4:04:16
  I feel that Betty is my vocation, and I shall set myself up
• 4:04:20
  as a rival of wordsworth nature of whose methods I have always had a decided
• 4:04:24
  distrust in spite of his insidious verses. Sarah did not understand me in the
• 4:04:28
  least, but then she did not pretend to. I confide buddy's education entirely
• 4:04:35
  to you, Stephen, she said, with another plaintive sigh. I feel
• 4:04:39
  sure it can open it into better hands. You've always been a person who
• 4:04:41
  could be thoroughly depended on. Well, that was something by way of reward
• 4:04:46
  for a lifelong devotion. I felt that I was satisfied with my position as
• 4:04:50
  unofficial adviser in chief to Sarah and self appointed guardian of Betty. I also
• 4:04:56
  felt that, for the furtherance of the cause I had taken to, it
• 4:05:00
  was a good thing that Sarah had again refused to marry me. I had
• 4:05:03
  a sixth sense which informed me that a staid, old family friend might succeed
• 4:05:07
  with Betty where a stepfather would have signally failed. Betty's loyalty to her father's
• 4:05:13
  memory was passionate and vehement. She would view his applanter with resentment and distrust,
• 4:05:18
  but his old familiar comrade was a person to be taken to her heart.
• 4:05:22
  Fortunately, for the success of my enterprise. Betty liked me. She
• 4:05:26
  told me this with the same engaging candor she would have used in informing me
• 4:05:30
  that she hated me if she had happened to take a bias in that direction,
• 4:05:33
  saying, frankly, you were one of the very nice soul folks I
• 4:05:37
  know, Stephen. Yes, you're a ripping good fellow. This made my
• 4:05:43
  task a comparatively easy one. I sometimes shuddered to think what it might have
• 4:05:46
  been if Betty had not thought I was a ripping good fellow. I should
• 4:05:50
  have suck to it, because that is my way. But Betty would have
• 4:05:54
  made my life a misery to me. She had startling capacities for tormenting people
• 4:05:58
  when she choose to exis. I certainly should not have liked to be numbered
• 4:06:03
  among Betty's foes. I rode over to Glenby the next morning after my paternal
• 4:06:07
  interview with Sarah, intending to have a frank talk with Betty and lay the
• 4:06:11
  foundations of a good understanding on both sides. Betty was a sharp child with
• 4:06:16
  a disconcerting knack of seeing straight through grindstones. She would certainly perceive and probably
• 4:06:20
  resent any underhanded management. I thought it best to tell her plainly that I
• 4:06:26
  was going to look after her. When, however, I encountered Betty carrying
• 4:06:30
  madly down the beach avenue with a couple of dogs, her loosened hair streaming
• 4:06:33
  behind her like a banner of independence, and had lifted her hatless and breathless
• 4:06:37
  up before me. On my mare, I found that Sarah had saved me
• 4:06:41
  the trouble of an explanation. Mother says, you are going to take charge
• 4:06:46
  of my education, Stephen, said Betty as soon as she could speak.
• 4:06:50
  I'm glad because I think that for an old person, you have a good
• 4:06:54
  deal of sense. I suppose my education has to be seen to sometime or
• 4:07:00
  other, and I'd rather you do it than anybody else I know. Thank
• 4:07:05
  you, Betty, I said gravely. I hope I shall deserve your good
• 4:07:09
  opinion of my sense. I shall expect you to do as I tell you
• 4:07:13
  and be guided by my advice in everything. Yes, I will, said
• 4:07:18
  Betty, because I'm sure you won't tell me to do anything i'd really hate
• 4:07:22
  to do. You won't shut me up in a room and meet me,
• 4:07:26
  so, will you? Because I won't do it, I assured her.
• 4:07:31
  I would not nor send me to boarding school, pursued Betty. Mother's always
• 4:07:37
  threatening to send me to one. I suppose she would have done it before
• 4:07:41
  this, only she'd knew i'd run away. You won't send me to a
• 4:07:46
  boarding school, will you, Stephen, Because I won't go. No,
• 4:07:50
  I said, obligingly. I won't. I should never dream of cooping a
• 4:07:54
  wild little thing like you up in a boarding school. You would fret your
• 4:07:58
  heart out like a caged skylark. I know you and I are going to
• 4:08:03
  get along together splendidly, Stephen, said Betty, rubbing her brown cheek,
• 4:08:07
  humbling against my shoulder. He was so good at understanding. Very few people
• 4:08:13
  are even that Darling didn't understand. He let me do just as I wanted
• 4:08:18
  to, just because I wanted to, not because he really understood that I
• 4:08:24
  couldn't be tame and play with dolls. I hate dolls, really like babies
• 4:08:28
  at journey. But dogs and horses are ever so much nicer than dolls.
• 4:08:35
  But you must have lessons, Betty. I shall select your teachers and superintend
• 4:08:39
  your studies, and I shall expect you to do me credit along that line,
• 4:08:43
  as well as along all others. I'll try honest and true Stephen declared
• 4:08:48
  Betty, and she kept her word. At first, I looked upon Betty's
• 4:08:54
  education as a duty. In a very short time, it had become a
• 4:08:58
  pleasure, theis and most abiding interest in my life. As I had promised,
• 4:09:03
  Betty was good material and responded to my training with gratifying plasticity. Day
• 4:09:09
  by day, week by week, month by month, her character and temperament
• 4:09:13
  unfolded naturally under my watchful eye. It was like beholding the gradual development of
• 4:09:18
  some rare flower in one's garden. A little checking and pruning here, a
• 4:09:22
  careful training of shoot and tendril there, and lo the reward of grace and
• 4:09:26
  symmetry. Betty grew up as I would have wished Jack Churchill's girl to grow,
• 4:09:31
  spirited and proud, with the fine spirit and gracious pride of pure womanhood,
• 4:09:35
  loyal and loving, with the loyalty and love of a frank and unspoiled
• 4:09:39
  nature, true to her heart's core, hating falsehood and sham, as crystal
• 4:09:43
  clear a mirror of maidenhood, as ever man looked into and saw himself reflected
• 4:09:48
  back in such a halo, as made him ashamed of not being more worthy
• 4:09:52
  of it. Betty was kind enough to say that I had taught her everything
• 4:09:56
  she knew, But what had she not taught me? If there was a
• 4:09:58
  dead between us, it was on my side. Sarah was fairly well satisfied.
• 4:10:05
  It was not my fault that Betty was not better looking. She said,
• 4:10:09
  I had certainly done everything for her mind and character that could be done.
• 4:10:13
  Sarah's matter implied that these unimportant details did not count for much, balanced
• 4:10:16
  against the lack of a pink and white skin and dimpled elbows. But she
• 4:10:20
  was generous enough not to blame me. When Betty is twenty five, I
• 4:10:24
  said patiently. I had grown used to speaking patiently to Sarah. She will
• 4:10:30
  be a magnificent woman, far handsomer than you ever were, Sarah, in
• 4:10:33
  your pinkest and whitest prime. Where are your eyes, my dear lady,
• 4:10:37
  that you can't see the promise of loveliness in Betty. Betty's seventeen, and
• 4:10:41
  she is as lanky and brown as ever she was, sighed Sarah. When
• 4:10:46
  I was seventeen, I was the belle of the county and had had five
• 4:10:48
  proposals. I don't believe the thought of the lovers ever entered Buddy's head.
• 4:10:54
  I hope not, I said shortly. Somehow I did not like the suggestion
• 4:11:00
  Betty is a child. Yet, for pity's sake, Sarah, don't go
• 4:11:03
  putting nonsensical ideas into her head. I'm afraid I can't, mourned Sarah,
• 4:11:09
  as if it were something to be regretted. You felt it too full of
• 4:11:11
  books and things like that. I've ever confidence in your judgment, Stephen.
• 4:11:16
  And really you've done wonders with Betty. But don't you think you've made her
• 4:11:20
  rather too clever? Men don't like women who are too clever. Her poor
• 4:11:24
  father, now, he always said that a woman who liked books better than
• 4:11:28
  views was an unnatural creature. I don't believe Jack ever said anything so foolish
• 4:11:33
  Sarah imagined things, but I resented the aspersion of blue stockingness cast on Betty.
• 4:11:39
  When the time comes for Betty to be interested in Beau's, I said
• 4:11:43
  severely, she will probably give them all due attention. Just at present,
• 4:11:48
  her head is a great deal better filled with books than with silly, premature
• 4:11:52
  fancies and sentimentalities. I'm a critical old fellow, but I'm satisfied with Betty.
• 4:11:56
  Sarah perfectly satisfied. Sarah sighed, Oh, I dare say she is
• 4:12:01
  all right, Stephen, and I'm really grateful to you. I'm sure I
• 4:12:05
  could have done nothing at all with her. It's not your fault, of
• 4:12:09
  course, but I can't help wishing she was a little more like other girls.
• 4:12:15
  I galloped away from Glenbye in a rage. What a blessing Sarah had
• 4:12:18
  not married me and my absurd youth. She would have driven me wild with
• 4:12:22
  her sighs and her obtuseness and her everlasting pink and whiteness. But there,
• 4:12:26
  there, there, gently she was a sweet, good hearted little woman.
• 4:12:31
  She had made Jack happy, and she had contrived Heaven only knew how to
• 4:12:37
  bring a rare creature like Betty into the world, for that much might be
• 4:12:41
  forgiven her. By the time I reached the Maples and had flung myself down
• 4:12:46
  in an old, kinky, comfortable chair in my library, I had forgiven
• 4:12:50
  her, and was even paying her the compliment of thinking seriously over what she
• 4:12:54
  had said. Was Betty really unlike other girls, that is to say,
• 4:12:58
  unlike them any respect wherein she should resemble them? I did not wish this.
• 4:13:03
  Although I was a crusty old bachelor, I approved of girls, holding
• 4:13:07
  them the sweetest things that Good God has made. I wanted Betty to have
• 4:13:11
  her full compliment of girlhood in all its best and highest manifestation. Was there
• 4:13:16
  anything lacking? I observed Betty very closely during the next week or so,
• 4:13:22
  riding over to Glenby every day and riding back at night. Meditating upon my
• 4:13:26
  observations, Eventually I concluded to do what I had never thought myself in the
• 4:13:31
  least likely to do. I would send Betty to a boarding school for a
• 4:13:33
  year. It was necessary that she should learn how to live with other girls.
• 4:13:39
  I went over to Glenby the next day and found Betty under the beaches
• 4:13:43
  on the lawn, just back from a canter. She was sitting on the
• 4:13:46
  dappled mare I had given her on her last birthday, and was laughing at
• 4:13:48
  the antics of her, rejoicing dogs around her. I looked at her with
• 4:13:52
  much pleasure. It glenned me to see how much, nay how totally a
• 4:13:56
  child, she still was despite her Churchill height. Her hair under her velvet
• 4:14:01
  cap still hung over her shoulders in the same thick plates. Her face had
• 4:14:05
  the firm leanness of early youth, but its curves were very fine and delicate.
• 4:14:09
  The brown skin that worried sarasol was flushed through with dusky color from her
• 4:14:13
  gallop. Her long dark eyes were filled with the beautiful unconsciousness of childhood.
• 4:14:18
  More than all, the soul in her was still the soul of a child.
• 4:14:24
  I found myself wishing that it could always remain so, but I knew
• 4:14:28
  it could not. The woman must blossom out some day. It was my
• 4:14:31
  duty to see that the flower fulfilled the promise of the bud. When I
• 4:14:35
  told Betty that she must go away to a school for a year, she
• 4:14:39
  shrugged, frowned, and consented. Betty had learned that she must consent to
• 4:14:45
  what I decreed, even when my decrees were opposed to her likings, as
• 4:14:48
  she had once fondly believed they never would be. But Betty had acquired confidence
• 4:14:52
  in me to the beautiful extent of acquiescing in everything I commanded. I'll go,
• 4:14:56
  of course, since you wish it, Stephen, She said, But
• 4:15:01
  why do you want me to go? You must have a reason. You
• 4:15:03
  always have a reason for anything you do. What is it that is for
• 4:15:07
  you to find out? Betty? I said, By the time you come
• 4:15:11
  back, you will have discovered it. I think if not, it will
• 4:15:15
  not have proved itself a good reason, and shall be forgotten. When Betty
• 4:15:18
  went away, I bade her goodbye, without burdening her with any useless words
• 4:15:22
  of advice. Write to me every week, and remember that you are Betty
• 4:15:26
  Churchill, I said. Betty was standing on the steps above among her dogs.
• 4:15:31
  She came down a step and put her arms around my neck. I
• 4:15:35
  remember that you are my friend, and that I must live up to you.
• 4:15:37
  She said, goodbye, Stephen. She kissed me two or three times,
• 4:15:43
  good hearty smacks, did I not say. She was still a child,
• 4:15:46
  and stood waving her hand to me. As I rode away, I
• 4:15:50
  looked back at the end of the avenue and saw her standing there, short
• 4:15:54
  skirted and hatless, fronting the lowering sun, with those fearless eyes of hers.
• 4:15:58
  So I looked my last upon the child, Betty. That was a
• 4:16:03
  lonely year. My occupation was gone, and I began to fear that I
• 4:16:07
  had outlived my usefulness. Life seemed flat, stale, and unprofitable. Betty's
• 4:16:14
  weekly letters were all that lent it any saber. They were spicy and piquant
• 4:16:18
  enough. Betty was discovered to have unsuspected talents in the Epistolori line. At
• 4:16:22
  first, she was dolefully homesick and begged me to let her come home.
• 4:16:26
  When I refused, it was amazingly hard to refuse. She soulked through three
• 4:16:33
  letters, then cheered up and began to enjoy herself. But it was nearly
• 4:16:37
  the end of the year when she wrote, I've found out why you sent
• 4:16:40
  me here, Stephen, and I'm glad you did. I had to be
• 4:16:44
  away from home on unavoidable business the day Betty returned to Glenbye, But the
• 4:16:48
  next afternoon I went over. I found Betty out and Sarah in. The
• 4:16:52
  latter was beaming. Betty was so much improved, she declared delightedly. I
• 4:16:57
  would hardly know the dear child. This alarmed me terribly. What on earth
• 4:17:03
  had they done to Betty? I found that she had gone up to the
• 4:17:06
  pineland for a walk, and thither I betook myself speedily. When I saw
• 4:17:10
  her coming down a long, golden brown alley, I stepped behind a tree
• 4:17:14
  to watch her. I wished to see her myself unseen. As she drew
• 4:17:18
  near, I gazed at her with pride and admiration, and amazement, and
• 4:17:22
  under it all a strange, dreadful heart sinking, which I could not understand,
• 4:17:27
  and which I had never in all my life experienced before, No,
• 4:17:32
  not even when Sarah had refused me. Betty was a woman not by virtue
• 4:17:37
  of the simple white dress that clung to her tall, slender figure, revealing
• 4:17:41
  lines of exquisite grace and litheness. Not by virtue of the glossy masses of
• 4:17:45
  the dark brown hair he tied on her head and held there in wonderful shining
• 4:17:48
  coils. Not by virtue of added softness of curve and daintiness of outline.
• 4:17:53
  Not because of all these, but because of the dream and wonder and seeking
• 4:17:59
  in her eyes. She was a woman looking all on cluscious of re quest
• 4:18:03
  for love. The understanding of the change in her came home to me with
• 4:18:07
  a shock that must have left me I think something white about the lips.
• 4:18:11
  I was glad she was what I had wished her to become. But I
• 4:18:15
  wanted the child Betty back. This womanly Betty seemed far away from me.
• 4:18:22
  I stepped out into the path, and she saw me with the brightening of
• 4:18:25
  her whole face. She did not rush forward and fling herself into my arms,
• 4:18:27
  as she would have done a year ago. But she came toward me
• 4:18:30
  swiftly, holding out her hand. I had thought her slightly pale when I
• 4:18:34
  had first seen her, but now I concluded I had been mistaken, for
• 4:18:38
  there was a wonderful sunrise of color in her face. I took her hand.
• 4:18:42
  There were no kisses this time. Welcome home, Betty, I said,
• 4:18:48
  Oh, Stephen, it is so good to be back. She breathed,
• 4:18:51
  her eyes shining. She did not say it was good to see me
• 4:18:55
  again, as I had hoped she would do. Indeed, after the first
• 4:18:57
  minute of greeting, she seemed a trifle cool and distant. We walked for
• 4:19:03
  an hour in the pine wood and talked. Betty was brilliant, witty,
• 4:19:07
  self possessed, altogether charming. I thought her perfect, and yet my heart
• 4:19:11
  ached. What a glorious young thing she was, in that splendid youth of
• 4:19:15
  hers. What a prize for some lucky man. Confound the obtrusive thought,
• 4:19:22
  No doubt we should soon be overrun at Lenby with lovers. I should stumble
• 4:19:26
  over some forlorn youth at every step. Well, what of it? Betty
• 4:19:30
  would marry? Of course it would be my duty to see that she got
• 4:19:34
  a good husband worthy of her as men go. I thought I preferred the
• 4:19:38
  old duty of superintending her studies. But there it was all the same thing,
• 4:19:44
  merely a postgraduate course in applied knowledge. When she began to learn life's
• 4:19:48
  greatest lesson of love, I, the tried and true old family friend and
• 4:19:53
  mentor, must be on hand to see that the teacher was what I would
• 4:19:56
  have him be, even as I had for selected her instructor in French and
• 4:20:00
  Botany. Then, and not until then, would Betty's education be complete.
• 4:20:07
  I rode home very soberly. When I reached the maples, I did what
• 4:20:11
  I had not done for years, looked critically at myself in the mirror.
• 4:20:15
  The realization that I had grown older came home to me with a new and
• 4:20:19
  unpleasant force. There were marked lines on my lean face, and silver glints
• 4:20:23
  in the dark hair over my temples. When Betty was ten, she had
• 4:20:27
  got me an old person. Now at eighteen, she probably thought me a
• 4:20:33
  veritable ancient of days. Pshah, what did it matter? And yet I
• 4:20:38
  thought of her as I had seen her standing under the pines, and something
• 4:20:42
  cold and painful laid its hand on my heart. My premonitions as to lovers
• 4:20:48
  proved correct. Glenby was soon infested with them. Heaven knows where they all
• 4:20:52
  came from. I had not supposed there was a quarter as many young men
• 4:20:56
  in the whole county, But there they were. Sarah was in the seventh
• 4:21:00
  heaven of delight. Was not Betty at last a bell. As for proposals,
• 4:21:06
  well, Betty never counted her scalps in public, but every once in
• 4:21:10
  a while a visiting youth dropped out and was seen no more at Glenby.
• 4:21:12
  One could guess what that meant. Betty apparently enjoyed all this. I grieved
• 4:21:18
  to say that she was a bit of a coquette. I tried to cure
• 4:21:22
  her of this serious effect, but for once I found that I had undertaken
• 4:21:25
  something I could not accomplish. In vain, I lectured, Betty only laughed.
• 4:21:30
  In vain. I gravely rebuked. Betty only flirted more vivaciously than before.
• 4:21:36
  Men might come and men might go, But Betty went on forever.
• 4:21:41
  I endured this sort of thing for a year, and then I decided that
• 4:21:44
  it was time to interfere seriously. I must find a husband. For Betty,
• 4:21:48
  my fatherly duty would not be fulfilled until I had, nor indeed my
• 4:21:53
  duty to society. She was not a safe person to have running at large.
• 4:21:59
  None of the men who hunt Glendy was good enough for her. I
• 4:22:02
  decided that my nephew, Frank would do very well. He was a capital
• 4:22:04
  young fellow, handsome, clean, souled, and whole hearted. From a
• 4:22:08
  worldly point of view, he was what Sarah would have termed an excellent match.
• 4:22:12
  He had money, social standing, and a rising reputation as a clever
• 4:22:17
  young lawyer. Yes, he should have Betty confound him. They had never
• 4:22:22
  met. I set the wheels going at once. The sooner all the fuss
• 4:22:26
  was over, the better. I hated fuss, and there was bound to
• 4:22:29
  be a good deal of it. But I went about the business like an
• 4:22:32
  accomplished match maker. I invited Frank to visit the Maples, and before he
• 4:22:36
  came, I talked much, but not too much, of him to Betty,
• 4:22:40
  mingling Judicia's praise and still more Judas's blame. Together women never like a
• 4:22:45
  paragon. Betty heard me with more gravity than she usually accorded to my dissertations
• 4:22:51
  on young men. She even condescended to ask several questions about him. This
• 4:22:56
  I thought a good sign to Frank. I had said not a word of
• 4:23:00
  about Betty when he came to the Maples. I took him over to Glenby,
• 4:23:03
  and, coming upon Betty wandering among the beaches in the sunset, I
• 4:23:07
  introduced him without any warning. He would have been more than mortal if he
• 4:23:11
  had not fallen in love with her upon the spot. It was not in
• 4:23:15
  the heart of man to resist her, that dainty, alluring bit of womanhood.
• 4:23:19
  She was all in white, with flowers in her hair, and for
• 4:23:22
  a moment I could have murdered Frank or any other man who dared to commit
• 4:23:26
  the sacrilege of loving her. Then I pulled myself together and left them alone.
• 4:23:32
  I might have gone in and talked to Sarah, two old folks gently
• 4:23:36
  reviewing their youth, while the young folks courted outside, But I did not.
• 4:23:40
  I prowled around the pine wood and tried to forget how blithe and handsome
• 4:23:44
  that curly headed boy Frank was, And what a flash that sprung into his
• 4:23:48
  eyes when he had seen Betty. Well, what of it? Was not
• 4:23:52
  that? What I had brought him there for? And was I not pleased
• 4:23:56
  at the success of my scheme? Certainly I was delighted. Next day Frank
• 4:24:00
  went to Glenby without even making the poor pretense of asking me to accompany him.
• 4:24:06
  I spent the time of his absence overseeing the construction of a new greenhouse
• 4:24:08
  I was having built. I was conscientious in my supervision, but I felt
• 4:24:12
  no interest in it. The place was intended for roses, and roses made
• 4:24:18
  me think of the pale yellow ones Betty had worn at her breast one evening
• 4:24:22
  the week before, when all lovers, being unaccountably absent, we had wandered
• 4:24:26
  together under the pines and talked as in the old days before her young womanhood,
• 4:24:30
  and my gray hairs had risen up to divide us. She had dropped
• 4:24:34
  a rose on the brown floor, and I had sneaked back after I had
• 4:24:37
  left her at the house to get it before I went home. I had
• 4:24:41
  it now in my pocket book, con found it mightn't a future uncle cherish
• 4:24:47
  a family affection for his prospective niece. Frank's wooing seemed to prosper. The
• 4:24:52
  other young Sparks who had haunted Glenby faded away after his advent, Betty treated
• 4:24:57
  him with most encouraging sweetness. Sarah smiled on him. I stood in the
• 4:25:02
  background, like a benevolent god of the machine, and flattered myself that I
• 4:25:04
  pulled the strings. At the end of a month, something went wrong.
• 4:25:10
  Frank came home from Glenby one day in the dumps and moped for two whole
• 4:25:14
  days. I wrote down myself on the third. I had not gone much
• 4:25:18
  to Glenby that month, but if there were trouble, Betty word, it
• 4:25:22
  was my duty to make smooth the rough places as usual. I found Betty
• 4:25:26
  in the pine land. I thought she looked rather pale and dull writing about
• 4:25:30
  Frank. No doubt, she brightened up when she saw me, evidently expecting
• 4:25:34
  that I had come to straighten matters out, But she pretended to be haughty
• 4:25:38
  and indifferent. I'm glad you haven't forgotten us altogether, Stephen, she said
• 4:25:42
  coolly. You haven't been down for a week. I'm flattered that you'd noticed
• 4:25:48
  it, I said, sitting down on a fallen tree and looking up at
• 4:25:51
  her as she stood tall in life against an old pine, with her eyes
• 4:25:55
  averted. I shouldn't have supposed you'd want an old fogy like myself, poking
• 4:25:59
  at and spoiling the idyllic moments of love's young dream. Why do you always
• 4:26:03
  speak of yourself as old? Said Betty, crossly, ignoring my reverence to
• 4:26:07
  Frank, Because I am old, my dear witness these gray hairs. I
• 4:26:12
  pushed up my hat to show them the more recklessly. Betty barely glanced at
• 4:26:17
  them. You have just enough to give you a distinguished look, she said,
• 4:26:22
  and you are only forty. A man is in his prime at forty.
• 4:26:25
  He never has any sense until he is forty, and sometimes he doesn't
• 4:26:27
  seem to have any then, she concluded, impertinently. My heart beat did
• 4:26:33
  Betty suspect was that last sentence meant to inform me that she was aware of
• 4:26:37
  my secret folly and laughed at it. I came over to see what has
• 4:26:42
  gone wrong between you and Frank, I said gravely. Betty bit her lips,
• 4:26:48
  Nothing, she said, Betty, I said, reproachfully. I brought
• 4:26:52
  you up, or endeavored to bring you up to speak the truth, the
• 4:26:56
  whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Don't tell me I have failed.
• 4:27:00
  I'll give you another chance. Have you quarreled with Frank? No,
• 4:27:04
  said the maddening, Betty. He quarreled with me, he went away in
• 4:27:08
  a temper, and I do not care if he never comes back. I
• 4:27:11
  shook my head. This won't do, Betty. As your old family friend,
• 4:27:17
  I still claim the right to scold you until you have a husband to
• 4:27:19
  do the scolding. You mustn't torment Frank. He is too fine a fellow.
• 4:27:23
  You must marry him, Betty, must, I said Betty, a
• 4:27:27
  dusky red flaming out on her cheek. She turned her eyes on me in
• 4:27:32
  a most disconcerting fashion. Do you wish me to marry Frank Stephen? Betty
• 4:27:37
  had a wretched habit of emphasizing pronouns in a fashion calculated to rattle anybody.
• 4:27:41
  Yes, I do wish it because I think it will be the best for
• 4:27:45
  you, I replied, without looking at her. You must marry some time,
• 4:27:48
  Betty. And Frank is the only man I know to whom I could
• 4:27:52
  trust you as your guardian. I have an interest in seeing you well and
• 4:27:56
  wisely settled for life. You have always taken my advice and obeyed my wishes,
• 4:28:00
  and you've always found my way the best in the long run, haven't
• 4:28:03
  you, Betty? You won't prove rebellious. Now, I'm sure you know
• 4:28:08
  quite well that I am advising you for your own good. Frank is a
• 4:28:11
  splendid young fellow who loves you with all his heart. Marry him, Betty.
• 4:28:17
  Mind, I don't command. I have no right to do that,
• 4:28:21
  and you are too old to be ordered about if I had, But I
• 4:28:23
  wish and advise. It isn't that enough, Betty? I had been looking
• 4:28:29
  away from her all the time I was talking, gazing determinedly down a sunlit
• 4:28:33
  vista of pines. Every word I said seemed to tear my heart and come
• 4:28:37
  from my lips stayed with life blood. Yes, Betty should marry Frank,
• 4:28:42
  But good God, what would become of me? Betty left her station under
• 4:28:47
  the pine tree and walked around me until she got right in front of my
• 4:28:49
  face. I couldn't help looking at her, for if I moved my eyes,
• 4:28:53
  she moved too. There was nothing meek or submissive about her. Her
• 4:28:57
  head was held high, her eyes were blazing, and her cheeks were crimson.
• 4:29:02
  But her words were meek enough. I will marry Frank if you wish
• 4:29:06
  it, Stephen, she said, you are my friend. I have never
• 4:29:10
  crossed your wishes. And as you say, I have never regretted being guided
• 4:29:12
  by them. I will do exactly as you wish. In this case also,
• 4:29:15
  I promise you that, but in so solemn a question, I must
• 4:29:18
  be very certain what you do wish. There must be no doubt in my
• 4:29:22
  mind or heart. Look me squarely in the eye, Stephen, as you
• 4:29:26
  haven't done once to day, no nor once since I came home from school,
• 4:29:30
  and so looking tell me that you wish me to marry Frank Douglas,
• 4:29:33
  and I will do it, Do you, Stephen? I had to look
• 4:29:36
  her in the eyes, since nothing else would do her. And as I
• 4:29:40
  did so, all the might of manhood in me rose up in hot revolt
• 4:29:44
  against the lie. I would have told her that unfaltering and pelling gaze of
• 4:29:48
  hers drew the truth from my lips. In spite of myself. No,
• 4:29:52
  I don't wish you to marry Frank Douglas. A thousand times, No,
• 4:29:56
  I said passionately, I don't wish you to marry any man on earth but
• 4:30:00
  myself. I love you. I love you, Betty. You are dearer
• 4:30:03
  to me than life, dearer to me than my own happiness. It was
• 4:30:07
  your happiness I thought of and so I asked you to marry Frank because I
• 4:30:10
  believed he would make you a happy woman. That is all. Betty's defiance
• 4:30:15
  went from her like a flame blown out. She turned away and drooped her
• 4:30:18
  proud head. It could not have made me a happy woman to marry one
• 4:30:22
  man loving another, she said in a whisper. I got up and went
• 4:30:26
  over to her. Betty, whom do you love? I asked, also
• 4:30:30
  in a whisper. You, she murmured, meekly. Oh, so meekly,
• 4:30:36
  my proud little girl, Betty, I said, brokenly. I'm old,
• 4:30:41
  too old for you. I'm more than twenty years your senior. I'm
• 4:30:45
  oh. Betty wheeled around on me and stamped her foot. Don't mention your
• 4:30:49
  age to me again. I don't care if you're as old as Methuselah.
• 4:30:52
  But I'm not going to coax you to marry me, sir. If you
• 4:30:55
  won't, I'll never marry anybody. I'll live and die an old maid.
• 4:30:57
  You can please yourself, of course. She turned away, half laughing,
• 4:31:02
  half crying. But I caught her in my arms and crushed her sweet lips
• 4:31:06
  against mine. Betty, I'm the happiest man in the world, and I
• 4:31:11
  was the most miserable when I came here. You deserve to be, said
• 4:31:15
  Betty Cruelly. I'm glad you were. Any man as stupid as you deserves
• 4:31:18
  to be unhappy. What do you think I felt like loving you with all
• 4:31:22
  my heart and seeing you simply throwing me at another man's head. Why I've
• 4:31:26
  always loved you, Stephen, but I didn't know it until I went to
• 4:31:29
  that detestable school. Then I found out, and I thought that was why
• 4:31:32
  you had sent me. But when I came home, you almost broke my
• 4:31:34
  heart. That was why I flirted so with all those poor nice boys.
• 4:31:38
  I wanted to hurt you, but I never thought I succeeded. You just
• 4:31:41
  went on being fatherly. Then when you brought Frank here, I almost gave
• 4:31:45
  up hope, and I tried to make up my mind to marry him.
• 4:31:48
  I should have done it if you had insisted, but I had to have
• 4:31:51
  one more try for happiness first. I had just one little hope to inspire
• 4:31:55
  me with sufficient boldness. I saw you that night when you came back here
• 4:31:59
  and picked up my rose. I had come back myself to be alone and
• 4:32:03
  unhappy. It is the most wonderful thing that ever happened that you should love
• 4:32:07
  me, I said, it's not I couldn't help it, said Betty,
• 4:32:11
  nestling her brown head on my shoulder. You taught me everything else, Stephen,
• 4:32:15
  so nobody, but you could teach me how to love. You've made
• 4:32:18
  a thorough thing in educating me. When will you marry me, Betty?
• 4:32:22
  I asked, as soon as I can fully forgive you for trying to make
• 4:32:26
  me marry somebody else, said Betty. It was rather hard lines on Frank
• 4:32:30
  when you come to think of it, but such as the selfishness of human
• 4:32:34
  nature that we didn't think much about. Frank, the young fellow behaved like
• 4:32:38
  the Douglas he was, went a little white about the lips when I told
• 4:32:41
  him, wished me all happiness, and went quietly away, gentlemen, unafraid.
• 4:32:48
  He has since married, and is I understand, very happy, not
• 4:32:52
  as happy as I am. Of course, that is impossible, because there
• 4:32:56
  is only one Betty in the world, and she is my End of story
• 4:33:03
  eleven, The Education of Betty. The raw wind of an early May evening
• 4:33:07
  was puffing in and out of the curtains of the room where Naomi Holland lay
• 4:33:11
  dying. The air was moist and chill, but the sick woman would not
• 4:33:15
  have the window closed. I can't get my breath if you shut everything up
• 4:33:18
  so tight, she said, whatever comes, I ain't going to be smothered
• 4:33:22
  to death. Craline Holland. Outside of the window grew a cherry tree,
• 4:33:26
  powdered with moist buds, with the promise of blossoms she would not live to
• 4:33:30
  see. Between its boughs, she saw a crystal cup of sky over hills
• 4:33:33
  that were growing dim and purple. The outside air was full of sweet,
• 4:33:37
  wholesome springtime sounds that drifted in fitfully. There were voices and whistles in the
• 4:33:42
  barnyard, and now and then faint laughter. A bird alighted for a moment
• 4:33:47
  on a cherry bough and twittered restlessly. Naomi knew that white mists were hovering
• 4:33:52
  in the silent shadows, that the maple at the gate wore a misty blossom
• 4:33:56
  red, and that violent stars were shining bluely on the brooklands. The room
• 4:34:00
  was a small, plain one. The floor was bare save for a couple
• 4:34:03
  of braided rugs. The plaster discolored the walls, dingy and glaring. There
• 4:34:07
  had never been much beauty in Naomi Hollan's environment, and now that she was
• 4:34:11
  dying, there was even less. At the open window, a boy of
• 4:34:15
  about ten years was leaning out over the sill and whistling. He was tall
• 4:34:19
  for his age and beautiful. The hair a rich auban with a glistening curl
• 4:34:23
  in it, skin very white and warm tinted, eyes small and of a
• 4:34:26
  greenish blue, with dilated pupils and long lashes. He had a weak chin
• 4:34:32
  and a full sullen mouth. The bed was in the corner furthest from the
• 4:34:36
  window. On it, the sick woman, in spite of the pain that
• 4:34:38
  was her portion, continually was lying as quiet and motionless as she had done
• 4:34:42
  ever since she had lain down upon it for the last time. Naomi Holland
• 4:34:45
  never complained. When the agony was at its worst, she shut her teeth
• 4:34:49
  more firmly over her bloodless lip, and her great black eyes glared at the
• 4:34:53
  blank wall before in a way that gave her attendants what they called the creeps.
• 4:34:57
  But no word or moan escaped her. Between paroxysms. She kept up
• 4:35:02
  her keen interest in the life that went on about her. Nothing escaped her
• 4:35:06
  sharp alert eyes and ears. This evening she lay spent on the crumpled pillows.
• 4:35:10
  She had had a bad spell in the afternoon, and she had left
• 4:35:12
  her very weak. In the dim light, her extremely long face looked corpse
• 4:35:17
  like already. Her black hair lay in a heavy braid over the pillow and
• 4:35:19
  down the counterpane. It was all that was left of her beauty, and
• 4:35:23
  she took a fierce joy in it. Those long, glistening, sinuous tresses
• 4:35:27
  must be combed and raided every day, no matter what came. A girl
• 4:35:32
  of fourteen was curled up on a chair at the head of the bed,
• 4:35:34
  with her head resting on the pillow. The boy at the window was her
• 4:35:37
  half brother, but between Christopher Holland and Yuna's car not the slightest resemblance existed.
• 4:35:44
  Presently, the sibilant silence was broken by a low, half strangled sob.
• 4:35:48
  The sick woman, who had been watching a white evening star through the
• 4:35:52
  cherry boughs, turned impatiently at the sound. I wish you'd get over that,
• 4:35:56
  eunus, she said sharply. I don't want any one crying of me
• 4:36:00
  until I'm dead, and then you'll have plenty else to do. Most likely
• 4:36:03
  if it wasn't for Christopher, I wouldn't be anyways unwilling to die when one
• 4:36:08
  has had such a life as I've had. There is much in death to
• 4:36:11
  be afraid of. Only a body would like to go right off and not
• 4:36:17
  die by inches like this. Tain't fair. She snapped out the last sentence,
• 4:36:22
  as if addressing some unseen tyrannical presence. Her voice at least had not
• 4:36:26
  weakened, but was as clear and incisive as ever. The boy at the
• 4:36:30
  window stopped whistling, and the girl silently wiped her eyes on her faded gingham.
• 4:36:33
  Apron Naomi drew her own hair over her lips and kissed it. You'll
• 4:36:37
  never have hair like that, eunus, she said. It does seem most
• 4:36:41
  a pretty to berry, doesn't it. Mind? You see that it is
• 4:36:45
  fixed nice when I'm laid out, comb it right out on my head and
• 4:36:48
  braid it there. A sound such as might be wrung from a suffering animal
• 4:36:52
  came from the girl, But at the same moment the door opened and a
• 4:36:55
  woman entered. Chris. She said, sharply you get right off for the
• 4:37:00
  cows, you lazy little scamp. You knew right well you had to go
• 4:37:03
  for them. And here you've been idling and me looking high and low for
• 4:37:07
  you. Make haste now, it's ridiculously The boy pulled in his head and
• 4:37:11
  scowled at his aunt, but he dared not disobey, and went out slowly
• 4:37:15
  with a sulky mutter. His aunt subdued a movement that might have developed into
• 4:37:19
  a sound box on his ears with a rather frightened glance at the bed.
• 4:37:23
  Naomi Holland was spent and dying, but her temper was still a thing to
• 4:37:26
  hold in dread, and her sister in law did not choose to rouse it
• 4:37:30
  by slapping Christopher to her and her co nurse. The spasms of rage which
• 4:37:34
  the sick woman sometimes had seemed to partake of the nature of devil possession.
• 4:37:38
  The last one, only three days before, had been provoked by Christopher's complaint
• 4:37:42
  of some real or fancied ill treatment from his aunt, and the latter had
• 4:37:45
  no mind to bring on another. She went over to the bed and straightened
• 4:37:49
  the clothes. Sara and I are going out to milk. Naomi Yunus will
• 4:37:53
  stay here with you. She can run for us if you feel another spell
• 4:37:56
  coming on. Naomi Holland looked up at her sister in law with something like
• 4:38:00
  malicious enjoyment. I ain't going to have any more spells, Caroline Anne.
• 4:38:04
  I'm going to die tonight, but you needn't hurry milking for that at all.
• 4:38:08
  I'll take my time. She liked to see the alarm that came over
• 4:38:12
  the other woman's face. It was richly worth while to scare Carolin Holland like
• 4:38:17
  that. Are you feeling any worse? Naomi asked the latter shakily. If
• 4:38:22
  you are, I'll send for Charles to go for the doctor. No you
• 4:38:25
  won't. What good can the doctor do me? I don't want either his
• 4:38:29
  or charles permission to die. You can go and milk at your res I
• 4:38:33
  won't die to lug on. I want to prive you of the pleasure of
• 4:38:36
  seeing me, missus. Holland shut her lips and went out of the room
• 4:38:38
  with a martyr like expression. In some ways, Naomi Holland was not an
• 4:38:42
  exacting patient, but she took her satisfaction out in the biting, malicious speeches
• 4:38:47
  she never failed to make. Even on her deathbed. Her hostility to her
• 4:38:51
  sister in law had to find vent outside of the steps. Sarah Spencer was
• 4:38:55
  waiting with the milk pails over her arm. Sarah Spencer had no fixed abiding
• 4:38:59
  place, but was always to be found where there was illness. Her experience
• 4:39:03
  and an utter lack of nerves made her a good nurse. She was a
• 4:39:07
  tall, homely woman with iron gray hair and the lined face. Beside her
• 4:39:11
  the trim little Carol and Anne, with her light step and round apple red
• 4:39:15
  face, looked almost girlish. The two women walked to the barnyard, discussing
• 4:39:18
  Naomi in undertones as they went. The house they had left behind grew very
• 4:39:22
  still. In Naomi Hollins's room, the shadows were gathering. Eunice timidly bent
• 4:39:27
  over her mother, MA, do you want the light lit? No,
• 4:39:32
  I'm watching star just below the big cherry bowl. I'll see it set behind
• 4:39:36
  the hill. I've seen it there off and on for twelve years, and
• 4:39:41
  now I'm taking goodbye look at it. I wanted to keep still too.
• 4:39:45
  I've got a few things to think over, and I don't want to be
• 4:39:48
  disturbed. The girl lifted herself about noiselessly and locked her hands over the bedpost.
• 4:39:52
  Then she laid her face down on them, biting at them silently,
• 4:39:56
  until the marks of her teeth showed white against the red roughness. Naomi Holland
• 4:40:00
  did not notice her. She was looking steadfastly at the great pearl like sparkle
• 4:40:03
  in the faint hued sky. When it finally disappeared from her vision, she
• 4:40:07
  struck her long, thin hands together twice at A terrible expression came over her
• 4:40:11
  face for a moment, but when she spoke, her voice was quite calm.
• 4:40:17
  You can light a candle now, Eunice. Put it up on the
• 4:40:19
  sharp hair, but it won't shine in my eyes, and then sit down
• 4:40:23
  on the foot of the bed where I can see you. I've got something
• 4:40:26
  to say to you. Unus obeyed her noiselessly. As the pallid light shot
• 4:40:32
  up, it revealed the child plainly. She was thin and ill formed,
• 4:40:34
  one shoulder being slightly higher than the other. She was dark like her mother,
• 4:40:38
  but her features were irregular, and her hair fell in straggling dim locks
• 4:40:42
  about her face. Her eyes were a dark brown, and over one was
• 4:40:47
  the slanting red scar of a birthmark. Naomi Holland looked at her with the
• 4:40:51
  contempt. She had never made any pretense of concealing the girl was bone of
• 4:40:55
  her bone, and flesh of her flesh. But she had never loved her
• 4:40:59
  All the mother love in her had been lavished on her son. When Yunus
• 4:41:02
  had placed the candle on the shelf and drawn down the ugly blue paper blinds,
• 4:41:06
  shutting out the strips of violet sky, where a score of glimmering points
• 4:41:08
  were now visible, she sat down on the foot of the bed, facing
• 4:41:11
  her mother. The door is shut, is it, eunis? Unus nodded,
• 4:41:15
  because I don't want Caroline or any one else speaking and HARKing to what
• 4:41:19
  I've got to say. She's out looking now, and I must make the
• 4:41:22
  most of the chance, Eunus. I'm going to die, and Ma,
• 4:41:27
  there now no taking on. You knew it had to come sometime soon.
• 4:41:33
  I haven't the strength to talk much, so I want you to just be
• 4:41:36
  quiet and listen. I am feeling any pain now, so I can think
• 4:41:40
  and talk pretty Clare, I am listening, Unus, Yes, Ma,
• 4:41:44
  mind you are. It's about Christopher. It hasn't been out on my mind
• 4:41:47
  since I lay down here. I've fought for a year to live on his
• 4:41:51
  account, and it ain't any use. I must die and leave him and
• 4:41:55
  I don't know what he'll do. It's dreadful to think of. She paused
• 4:41:59
  and stuck her shrunken hands sharply against the table. If he was bigger and
• 4:42:03
  could look out for himself, it wouldn't be so bad. But he's only
• 4:42:06
  a little fellow, and Caroline hates him. You'll both have to live with
• 4:42:10
  her until you're grown up. She'll put on him and abuse him. He's
• 4:42:14
  like his father in some ways. He's got a temper, and he is
• 4:42:17
  stubborn. He'll never get on with Caroline. Now, Eunice, I'm going
• 4:42:21
  to get you to promise to take my place with Christopher when I'm dead.
• 4:42:25
  As far as you can, he got too. It's your duty, But
• 4:42:27
  I want you to promise I will, Ma, whispered the girl solemnly.
• 4:42:32
  You haven't much force, you never had. If you were smart, you
• 4:42:36
  could do a lot for him, but you'll have to do your best.
• 4:42:38
  I want you to promise me faithfully that you'll stand by him and protect him,
• 4:42:44
  that you want their people impose on him, that you'll never desert him
• 4:42:47
  as long as you need you, no matter what comes. Eunice, promise
• 4:42:51
  me this. In her excitement, the sick woman raised herself up in the
• 4:42:53
  bed and clutched the girl's thin arm. Her eyes were blazing and two scarlet
• 4:42:57
  spots glowed in her thin cheeks. Unus's face was white and tense. She
• 4:43:03
  clasped her hands as one in prayer. Mother, I promise it. Naomi
• 4:43:07
  relaxed her grip on the girl's arm and sank back, exhausted on the pillow.
• 4:43:10
  A deathlike look came over her face as the excitement faded. My mind
• 4:43:14
  is easier now, But if I could only have lived another year or two,
• 4:43:18
  and I hate Caroline Hatter, Eunice, don't you ever let her abuse
• 4:43:22
  my boy. If she did, and were a few neglected him, I'd
• 4:43:26
  come back from my grave to you. As for the property, things will
• 4:43:30
  be pretty straight. I've seen to that. There'll be some squablin and doing
• 4:43:33
  Christopher out of his rights. He's to have the farm as soon as he's
• 4:43:37
  old enough to work it, and he's to provide for you and Eunice.
• 4:43:41
  Remember what you've promised. Outside, in the thickly gathering dusk, Caroline Holland
• 4:43:45
  and Sarah Spencer were at the dairy, straining milk into creamers, for which
• 4:43:49
  Christopher was sulently pumping water. The house was far from the road, up
• 4:43:53
  to which a long red lane led. Across the field was the old Holland
• 4:43:57
  Homestead, where Carolyn lived. Her un sister in law, Alector Holland,
• 4:44:00
  kept house for her while she waited on Naomi. It was her night to
• 4:44:04
  go home and sleep, but Naomi's words haunted her, though she believed they
• 4:44:07
  were born of pure cantankerousness. You'd better go in and look at her,
• 4:44:11
  Sarah, she said, as she rinsed out the pails. If you think
• 4:44:15
  I'd better stay here to Mada, I will. If the woman was like
• 4:44:18
  anybody else, a body would know what to do. But if she thought
• 4:44:22
  she could scare us by saying she was going to die, she'd say it.
• 4:44:26
  When Sarah went in, the sick room was very quiet. In her
• 4:44:29
  opinion, Naomi was no worse than usual, and she told Caroline so,
• 4:44:32
  But the latter felt vaguely uneasy and concluded to stay. Naomi was as cool
• 4:44:37
  and defiant as customary. She made them bring Christopher in to say good night,
• 4:44:40
  and had him lifted up on the bed to kiss her. Then she
• 4:44:42
  held him back and looked at him admiringly. At the bright curls and rosy
• 4:44:47
  cheeks and round firm limbs. The boy was uncomfortable under her gaze and squirmed
• 4:44:51
  hastily down. Her eyes followed him greedily as he went out. When the
• 4:44:56
  door closed behind him, she groaned. Sarah Spencer was startled. She had
• 4:45:00
  never heard Naomi Holland groan since she had come to wait on her. Are
• 4:45:03
  you feeling any worse, Naomi? Is the pain coming back? No,
• 4:45:07
  go and tell Caroline to give Christopher some of that grape jelly on his bread
• 4:45:11
  before he goes to bed. She'll find it in the cupboard under the stairs.
• 4:45:15
  Presently, the house grew very still. Caroline had dropped asleep on the
• 4:45:18
  sitting room lounge across the hall. Sarah Spencer nodded over her knitting by the
• 4:45:22
  table in the sick room. She had told Yunis to go to bed,
• 4:45:25
  but the child refused. She still sat huddled up on the foot of the
• 4:45:27
  bed, watching her mother's face intently. Naomi appeared to sleep. The candle
• 4:45:33
  burned long, and the wick was crowned by a little cap of fiery red
• 4:45:36
  that seemed to watch unus like some impish goblin. The wavering light cast grotesque
• 4:45:41
  shadows of Sarah Spencer's head on the wall. The thin curtains at the window
• 4:45:45
  wavered to and fro, as if shaken by ghostly hands. At midnight,
• 4:45:48
  Naomi Holland opened her eyes. The child she had never loved was the only
• 4:45:52
  one to go with her to the brink of the unseen Unice. Remember,
• 4:45:57
  it was the faintest whisper, the soul passing over the threshold of another life,
• 4:46:03
  strained back to its only earthly tie. A quiver passed over the long,
• 4:46:07
  pallid face. A horrible scream rang through the silent house. Sarah Spencer
• 4:46:11
  sprang out of her doze in consternation and gazed blankly at the shrieking child.
• 4:46:17
  Caroline came hurrying in with distended eyes. On the bed. Naomi Holland lay
• 4:46:22
  dead in the room where she had died. Naomi Holland lay in her coffin.
• 4:46:26
  It was dim and hushed, but in the rest of the house the
• 4:46:29
  preparations of the funeral were being carried on. Through it all, Yunus moved
• 4:46:33
  calm and silent. Since her one wild spasm of screaming by her mother's death
• 4:46:37
  bed, she had shed no tear, given no sign of grief. Perhaps,
• 4:46:41
  as her mother had said, she had no time. There was Christopher
• 4:46:44
  to be looked after. The boy's grief was stormy and uncontrolled. He had
• 4:46:48
  cried until he was utterly exhausted. It was Eunus who soothed him, coaxed
• 4:46:52
  him to eat, kept him constantly by her. At night, she took
• 4:46:56
  him into her own room and watched over him while he slept. When the
• 4:46:59
  funeral was over, the household furniture was packed away or sold, The house
• 4:47:03
  was locked up, and the farm rented. There was nowhere for the children
• 4:47:06
  to go, save to their uncles. Carolin Holland did not want them,
• 4:47:08
  but having to take them, she grimly made up her mind to do what
• 4:47:11
  she considered her duty by them. She had five children of her own,
• 4:47:15
  and between them and Christopher a standing feud had existed from the time he could
• 4:47:18
  walk. She had never liked Naomi. Few people did. Benjamin Holland had
• 4:47:23
  not married until late in life, and his wife had declared war on his
• 4:47:26
  family. At sight. She was a stranger in Avonlea, a widow with
• 4:47:30
  a three year old child. She made few friends, as some people always
• 4:47:33
  asserted that she was not in her right mind. Within a year of her
• 4:47:37
  second marriage, Christopher was born, and from the hour of his birth his
• 4:47:41
  mother had worshiped him blindly. He was her only solace. For him,
• 4:47:45
  she toiled and pinched and saved. Benjamin Holland had not been fourhanded when she
• 4:47:49
  married him, but when he died six years after his marriage, he was
• 4:47:52
  a well to do man. Naomi made no pretense of mourning for him.
• 4:47:56
  It was an open secret that they had quarreled. Like the proverbial cat and
• 4:48:00
  dog. Charles Holland and his wife had naturally sided with Benjamin, and Naomi
• 4:48:04
  fought her battle single handed. After her husband's death, she managed to farm
• 4:48:08
  alone and made it pay. When the mysterious malady which was to end her
• 4:48:12
  life first seized her, she fought against it with all the strength and stubbornness
• 4:48:17
  of her strong and stubborn nature. Her will won for her an added year
• 4:48:21
  of life, and then she had to yield. She tasted all the bitterness
• 4:48:25
  of death the day on which she lay down on her bed and saw her
• 4:48:27
  enemy come in to rule her house. But Caroline Holland was not a bad
• 4:48:32
  or unkind woman. True, she did not love Naomi or her children.
• 4:48:34
  But the woman was dying and must be looked after for the sake of common
• 4:48:37
  humanity. Caroline thought she had done well by her sister in law. When
• 4:48:41
  the red clay was heaped over Naomi's grave in the Avonlea burying ground, Caroline
• 4:48:45
  took Unis and Christopher home with her. Christopher did not want to go.
• 4:48:48
  It was Eunus who reconciled him. He clung to her with an exacting affection
• 4:48:52
  born of loneliness and grief. In the days that followed, Caroline Holland was
• 4:48:56
  obliged to confess to herself that there would have been no doing anything with Christopher
• 4:49:00
  had it not been for Eunus. The boy was sullen and obstinate, but
• 4:49:04
  his sister had an unfailing influence over him. In Charles Holland's household, no
• 4:49:08
  one was allowed to eat the bread of idleness. His own children were all
• 4:49:12
  girls, and Christopher came in handy as a chore boy. He was made
• 4:49:15
  to work, perhaps too hard, but Eunus helped him and did half his
• 4:49:18
  work for him when nobody knew. When he quarreled with his cousins, she
• 4:49:22
  took his part whenever possible, she took on herself the blame and punishment of
• 4:49:26
  his misdeeds. Alector Holland was Charles's unmarried sister. She had kept house for
• 4:49:32
  Benjamin until he married. Then Naomi had bundled her out. Electa had never
• 4:49:36
  forgiven her for it. Her hatred passed on to Naomi's children in a hundred
• 4:49:41
  petty ways. She revenged herself on them. For herself. Yunus bore it
• 4:49:45
  patiently, but it was a different matter when it touched Christopher. Once Elector
• 4:49:48
  boxed Christopher's ears, Eunus, who was knitting by the table, stood up.
• 4:49:52
  A resemblance to her mother, never before visible came out in her face
• 4:49:56
  like a brand. She lifted her hand and slapped Elector's cheek deliberately twice,
• 4:50:02
  leaving a dull red mark where she struck. If you ever strike my brother
• 4:50:06
  again, she said, slowly and vindictively, I will slap your face every
• 4:50:11
  time you do. You have no right to touch him, my patience,
• 4:50:15
  What a fury, said Elector. Now owe me. Holland would never be
• 4:50:19
  dead as long as you were alive. She told Charles of the affair,
• 4:50:23
  and Eunice was severely punished, but Elector never interfered with Christopher again. All
• 4:50:29
  the discordant elements in the Holland household could not prevent the children from growing up.
• 4:50:33
  It was a consummation which the harassed Carolin devoutly wished. When Christopher Holland
• 4:50:37
  was seventeen, he was a man grown, a big, strapping fellow.
• 4:50:41
  His childish beauty had coarsened, but he was still thought handsome by many.
• 4:50:45
  He took charge of his mother's farm then, and the brother and sister began
• 4:50:48
  their new life together in the unoccupied house. There were few regrets on either
• 4:50:52
  side. When they left Charles Holland's roof in her secret heart, Unus felt
• 4:50:56
  an unspeakable relief. Christopher had been hard to manage, As his uncle said
• 4:51:00
  in the last year, he was getting into the habit of keeping late hours
• 4:51:04
  and doubtful company. This always provoked an explosion of wrath from Charles Holland,
• 4:51:08
  and the conflicts between him and his nephew were frequent and bitter. For four
• 4:51:12
  years after their return home, Unus had a hard and anxious life. Christopher
• 4:51:18
  was idle and dissipated. Most people regard him as a worthless fellow, and
• 4:51:22
  his uncle washed his hands of him utterly. Only Eunus never failed him,
• 4:51:26
  never reproached or railed. She worked like a slave to keep things together.
• 4:51:30
  Eventually, her patience prevailed. Christopher to a great extent, reformed and worked
• 4:51:34
  harder. He was never unkind to Yunus, even in his rages. It
• 4:51:38
  was not in him to appreciate or return her devotion, but his tolerant acceptance
• 4:51:41
  of it was her solace. When Eunus was twenty eight, Edward Bell wanted
• 4:51:45
  to marry her. He was a plain, middle aged widower with four children.
• 4:51:49
  But as Carolin did not fail to remind her, Unus herself was not
• 4:51:52
  for every market, and the former did her best to make the match.
• 4:51:56
  She might have succeeded had it not been for Christopher. When he, instead
• 4:52:00
  bite of Carolyn's skillful management, got an inkling of what was going on,
• 4:52:03
  he flew into a true Holland rage. If Eunus married and left him,
• 4:52:07
  he would sell the farm and go to the devil by way of the Klondike.
• 4:52:10
  He could not and would not do without her. No arrangement suggested by
• 4:52:15
  Caroline availed to pacify him, and in the end Yunus refused to marry Edward
• 4:52:18
  Bell. She could not leave Christopher, she said, simply, and in
• 4:52:22
  this she stood rock firm. Caroline could not budge her an inch. You're
• 4:52:26
  a fool, Eunice, she said, when she was obliged to give up
• 4:52:29
  in despair. It's not likely you'll ever have another chance. As for Chris,
• 4:52:33
  in a year or two, he'll be marrying himself. And where will
• 4:52:37
  you be. Then you'll find your nose nicely out of joint when he brings
• 4:52:41
  a wife in here The shaft went home. Yunus's lips turned white, but
• 4:52:45
  she said faintly. The house is big enough for us both if he does.
• 4:52:49
  Caroline sniffed, maybe so you'll find out. However, there's no use
• 4:52:55
  talking. You are as sad as your mother was, and nothing would ever
• 4:52:59
  budge her an inch. I only hope you won't be sorry for it.
• 4:53:03
  When three more years had passed, Christopher began to court Victoria Pye. The
• 4:53:07
  affair went on for some time before either Unics or the Hollands got wind of
• 4:53:10
  it. When they did, there was an explosion between the Hollands and the
• 4:53:15
  Pie's root and branch existed a few that dated back for three generations. That
• 4:53:18
  the original cause of the quarrel was totally forgotten did not matter. It was
• 4:53:22
  a matter of family pride that a Holland should have no dealings with a pie.
• 4:53:26
  When Christopher flew so openly in the face of this cherished hatred, there
• 4:53:30
  could be nothing less than consternation. Charles Holland broke through his determination to have
• 4:53:34
  nothing to do with Christopher to remonstrate. Carolyn went into Unice in as much
• 4:53:38
  of a splutter as if Christopher had been her own brother. Eunice did not
• 4:53:41
  care a row of pins for the Holland pie feud. Victoria was to her
• 4:53:45
  what any other girl upon whom Christopher cast eyes of love would have been a
• 4:53:49
  supplanter. For the first time in her life, she was torn with passionate
• 4:53:53
  jealousy. Existence became a nightmare to her. Urged on by Caroline and by
• 4:53:57
  her own pain, she ventured to remonstrate with Christopher. Also. She had
• 4:54:02
  expected a burst of rage, but he was surprisingly good natured. He even
• 4:54:06
  seemed amused. I hag you got against Victoria, he asked tolerantly. Yunus
• 4:54:11
  had no answer ready. It was true that nothing could be said against the
• 4:54:14
  girl. She felt helpless and baffled. Christopher laughed at her silence. I
• 4:54:18
  guess you're a little joelous, he said. You must have expected I would
• 4:54:22
  get married some time. This house is big enough for us all. You'd
• 4:54:26
  better look at the matter sensibly, Eunice, don't let Charles and Caroline put
• 4:54:30
  nonsense into your head. A man must marry to please himself. Christopher was
• 4:54:34
  out late that night. Yunus waited up for him, as she always did.
• 4:54:38
  It was a chilly spring evening, reminding her of the night her mother
• 4:54:41
  had died. The kitchen was in spotless order, and she sat down in
• 4:54:45
  a stiff backed chair by the window to wait for her brother. She did
• 4:54:48
  not want a light. The moonlight fell in with faint illumination. Outside,
• 4:54:52
  the wind was blowing over a bed of new sprung mint in the garden,
• 4:54:56
  and it was suggestively fragrant. It was a very old fashioned garden, the
• 4:55:00
  perennials Naomi Holland had planted long ago. Unus always kept it primly neat.
• 4:55:03
  She had been working in it that day and felt tired. She was all
• 4:55:07
  alone in the house, and the loneliness filled her with a faint dread.
• 4:55:11
  She had tried all that day to reconcile herself to Christopher's marriage, and had
• 4:55:15
  partially succeeded. She told herself that she could still watch over him and care
• 4:55:18
  for his comfort. She would even try to love Victoria. After all,
• 4:55:22
  it might be pleasant to have another woman in the house. So sitting there
• 4:55:26
  she fed her hungry soul with these husks of comfort. When she heard Christopher's
• 4:55:30
  step, she moved about quickly to get a light. He frowned when he
• 4:55:33
  saw her. He had always resented her sitting up for him. He sat
• 4:55:37
  down by the stove and took off his boots while Yunus got a lunch for
• 4:55:40
  him. After he had eaten it in silence, he made no move to
• 4:55:42
  go to bed. A chill, premonitory fear crept over Eunus. It did
• 4:55:47
  not surprise her at all when Christopher finally said, abruptly, Yunus, I've
• 4:55:51
  antuned to be married this spring, Unus clasped her hands together under the table.
• 4:55:55
  It was what she had been expecting. She said so, in a
• 4:55:57
  monotonous voice. You must make some arrangement for you, illness. Christopher went
• 4:56:02
  on in a hurried, hesitant way, keeping his eyes riveted doggedly on his
• 4:56:06
  plate. Victoria doesn't exactly like well. She thinks it's better for young married
• 4:56:11
  folks who begin life by themselves. And I guess she's about right. You
• 4:56:14
  won't find it comfortable anyhow, having to step back to second place after being
• 4:56:18
  mistress here for so long. Unus tried to speak, but only an indistinct
• 4:56:22
  murmur came from her bloodless lips. The sound made Christopher look up. Something
• 4:56:26
  in her face irritated him. He pushed back his chair impatiently. Now,
• 4:56:30
  Yuness, don't go talking on. It won't be any use. Look at
• 4:56:33
  this business in a sensible way. I'm fond of you and all that,
• 4:56:37
  but a man is bound to consider his wife first. I'll provide for you
• 4:56:41
  comfortably. Do you mean to say that your wife is going to turn me
• 4:56:45
  out? Yunus gusted. Rather than spoke the words, Christopher drew his British
• 4:56:49
  brows together. I just mean that Victoria says that she won't marry me if
• 4:56:53
  she has to live with you. She's afraid of you. I told her
• 4:56:57
  you wouldn't interfere with her, but she wasn't satisfied. It's your own thought,
• 4:57:02
  Uness. You've always been so queer and closed that people think you're an
• 4:57:06
  awful crank. Victoria is young and lively and new, and she shouldn't get
• 4:57:10
  on at all. There isn't any question of turning wild. I'll build a
• 4:57:15
  little house for you somewhere, and you'll be a great deal better off there
• 4:57:18
  than you would be here, So don't make a fuss. Eunice did not
• 4:57:21
  look as if she were going to make a fuss. She sat as if
• 4:57:23
  turned to stone, her hands, lying palm uput in her lap. Christopher
• 4:57:27
  got up hugely, relieved that the dread explanation was over. Guess I'll go
• 4:57:32
  to bed. You'd better have gone long ago in so nonsense. Just wait
• 4:57:37
  enough for me. When he had gone, Unices drew a long, sobbing
• 4:57:41
  breath and looked about her like a dazed soul. All the sorrow of her
• 4:57:45
  life was nothing to the desolation that assailed her now. She rose and with
• 4:57:48
  uncertain footsteps, passed out through the hall and into the room where her mother
• 4:57:52
  had died. She had always kept it locked and undisturbed. It was arranged
• 4:57:56
  just as Naomi Holland had left it. Eunice totted to the bed and down
• 4:58:00
  on it. She recalled the promise she had made to her mother in that
• 4:58:03
  very room. Was the power to keep it to be wrested from her?
• 4:58:07
  Was she to be driven from her home and parted from the only creature she
• 4:58:10
  had on earth to love? And would Christopher allow it, after all her
• 4:58:12
  sacrifices for him? Aye that he would. He cared more for that black
• 4:58:17
  eyed, waxen faced girl at the Old Pie Place than for his own kin.
• 4:58:22
  Unus put her hands over her dry, burning eyes and groaned aloud.
• 4:58:26
  Caroline Holland had her hour of triumph over Eunus when she heard it all to
• 4:58:30
  one of her nature. There was no pleasure so sweet as that of saying
• 4:58:33
  I told you so. Having said it, however, she offered Unus a
• 4:58:37
  home. Alector Holland was dead, and Unus might fill her place very acceptably
• 4:58:41
  if she would. You can't go off and live by yourself, Caroline told
• 4:58:45
  her, It's all nonsense to talk of such a thing. We will give
• 4:58:48
  you a home if Prisper is going to turn you out. You were always
• 4:58:52
  a fool Eunus to pet and pamper him as you've done. This is the
• 4:58:56
  thanks you get for it. Turned off like a dog for his fine wife's
• 4:59:00
  whim, I only wish your mother was still alive. It was probably the
• 4:59:04
  first time Karen had ever wished this. She had flown at Christopher like a
• 4:59:08
  fury about the matter, and had been rudely insulted for her pains. Christopher
• 4:59:11
  had told her to mind her own business. When Carolyn cooled down, she
• 4:59:15
  made some arrangements with him, to all of which Unis listlessly assented. She
• 4:59:19
  did not care what became of her. When Christopher Holland brought Victoria as mistress
• 4:59:23
  to the house where his mother had toiled and suffered and ruled with her rod
• 4:59:26
  of iron, Eunice was gone. In Charles Holland's household. She took elector's
• 4:59:30
  place and unpaid upper servant. Charles and Carollan were kind enough to her,
• 4:59:34
  and there was plenty to do. For five years, her dull, colorless
• 4:59:38
  life went on, during which time she never crossed the threshold of the house
• 4:59:41
  where Victoria Holland ruled with a sway as absolute as Naomi's had been. Carolin's
• 4:59:47
  curiosity led her, after her first anger had cooled, to make occasional calls,
• 4:59:51
  the observation of which she faithfully reported to Eunice the latter never betrayed any
• 4:59:56
  interest in them, save once. This was when Karen came home full of
• 4:59:59
  the news that Victoria had had the room when Eromi died, opened up and
• 5:00:02
  shorely furnished as a parlor. Then Eunice's sallow face crimsoned and her eyes flashed
• 5:00:07
  over the desecration. But no word of comment or complaint ever crossed her lips.
• 5:00:11
  She knew, as every one knew, that the glamour soon went from
• 5:00:15
  Christopher Holland's married life. The marriage proved an unhappy one. Not unnaturally,
• 5:00:19
  though unjustly, Eunus blamed Victoria for this and hated her more than ever for
• 5:00:23
  it. Christopher seldom came to Charles's house. Possibly he felt ashamed. He
• 5:00:27
  had grown into a morose, silent man at home and abroad. It was
• 5:00:32
  said he had gone back to his old drinking habits. One fall, Victoria
• 5:00:34
  Holland went to town to visit her married sister. She took their only child
• 5:00:38
  with her. In her absence, Christopher kept house for himself. It was
• 5:00:42
  a fall long remembered in Avonlea. With the dropping of the leaves and the
• 5:00:47
  shortening of the dreary days, the shadow of a fear fell over the land.
• 5:00:51
  Charles Holland brought the fateful news home. One night, there's small pox
• 5:00:55
  in Charlottetown. Five or six cases came in one of the vessels there was
• 5:00:59
  at and a sailor from one of the ships was there and took sick the
• 5:01:03
  next day. This was alarming enough. Charlottetown was not so very far away,
• 5:01:07
  and considerable traffic went on between it and the north Shore districts. When
• 5:01:11
  Caroline recounted the concert story to Christopher the next morning, his ruddy face turned
• 5:01:15
  quite pale. He opened his lips as if to speak, then closed them
• 5:01:19
  again. They were sitting in the kitchen. Caroline had run over to return
• 5:01:23
  some tea she had borrowed, and incidentally, to see what she could of
• 5:01:26
  Victoria's housekeeping. In her absence, her eyes had been busy while her tongue
• 5:01:30
  ran on, and so she did not notice the man's pallor and silence.
• 5:01:34
  How long does it take for a small box to develop after one has been
• 5:01:37
  exposed to it, he asked abruptly, when Carolyn rose to go tender fourteen
• 5:01:42
  days I cuckl was her answer. I must see about having a girl's vaccinated
• 5:01:47
  right off, it's likely to spread. Wouldn't you expect Victoria home when she
• 5:01:52
  is ready to come? Whenever there will be was the gruff response. A
• 5:01:56
  week later, Carolyn said to Eunice, what afras got Chris? He hasn't
• 5:02:00
  been out anywhere for ages, just hangs around the house the whole time.
• 5:02:04
  It's something new for him. I suppose the place is so quiet now,
• 5:02:07
  Madam Victoria's away, that he can find some rest for a saw. I
• 5:02:11
  believe I'll run over after some milking and see how he's getting on. You
• 5:02:15
  might as welcome, too, Eunice. Unice shook her head, she had
• 5:02:18
  all her mother's obstinacy, and darkened Victoria's door. She would not. She
• 5:02:22
  went on patiently dining socks, sitting at the west window, which was her
• 5:02:26
  favorite position, perhaps because she could look from it across the sloping field and
• 5:02:30
  past the crescent curve of Maple Grove to her lost home. After milking,
• 5:02:34
  Carolyn threw a shawl over her head and ran across the field. The house
• 5:02:37
  looked lonely and deserted as she fumbled at the latch to the gate. The
• 5:02:41
  kitchen door opened and Christopher Holland appeared on the threshold. Don't come any farther,
• 5:02:48
  he called. Carolyn fell back in blank astonishment. Was this some more
• 5:02:52
  of Victoria's work? I ain't an agent for the small pox? She called
• 5:02:56
  back viciously. Christopher did not heed her. Will you go home and ask
• 5:03:00
  uncle if you'll go, or send for doctor Spencer. He's the smallpox doctor.
• 5:03:04
  I'm sick. Carolyn felt a thrill of dismay and fear. She faltered
• 5:03:08
  a few steps backward, sick. What's the matter with you? I was
• 5:03:14
  in Charlotte Town that night and went to the concert. That sailor sat right
• 5:03:18
  beside me. I thought at the time he looked sick. It was just
• 5:03:22
  twelve days ago. I felt bad all day, yesterday and today. Send
• 5:03:27
  for the doctor. Don't come near the house, or let anyone else come
• 5:03:30
  near. He went in and shut the door. Carolyn stood for a few
• 5:03:34
  moments in an almost ludicrous panic. Then she turned and ran, as if
• 5:03:38
  for her life, across the field. Unus saw her coming and met her
• 5:03:42
  at the door. Mercy on Us gasped Carolyn. Christopher second, thinks he's
• 5:03:48
  got the small pox. Where's Charles? Unice tottered back against the door.
• 5:03:52
  Her hand went up to her side in a way that had been getting very
• 5:03:56
  common with her of late. Even in the midst of her excitement, Karen
• 5:03:59
  noticed, Eunice, what makes you do that every time anything startles you?
• 5:04:03
  She asked, sharply, Is it anything about your heart? I don't know
• 5:04:10
  a little pain. It's gone. Now. Did you say that Christopher has
• 5:04:15
  a small pox? Well? He says so inself, and it's more than
• 5:04:19
  likely considering the circumstances, I declare I never got such a turn in my
• 5:04:25
  life. It's a dreadful thing. I must find Charles at once. There'll
• 5:04:29
  be a hundred things to do. Yunus hardly heard her. Her mind was
• 5:04:33
  sentered upon one idea Christopher was ill alone. She must go to him.
• 5:04:37
  It did not matter what his disease was. When Caroline came in from her
• 5:04:41
  breathless expedition to the barn, she found Yunus standing by the table with her
• 5:04:45
  hat and shawl on tying up a parcel. Unus, where on earth are
• 5:04:49
  you going over home? Said Yunus. If Christopher is going to be ill,
• 5:04:55
  he must be nursed, and I'm the one to do it. He
• 5:04:57
  ought to be seen to right away, Eunus Carr, have you gone clean
• 5:05:02
  out of your senses? It's the small pox, the small pox. If
• 5:05:07
  he's garted, he'll have to be taken to the small pox hospital in town.
• 5:05:11
  You shan't, sir a step to go to that house. I will,
• 5:05:15
  Unus faced her excited aunt quietly. The odd resemblance to her mother,
• 5:05:18
  which only came out in moments of great tension, was plainly visible. He
• 5:05:22
  shan't go to the hospital. They never get proper attention there. You needn't
• 5:05:27
  try to stop me. It won't put you or your family in any danger.
• 5:05:32
  Caroline fell helplessly into a chair. She felt it would be of no
• 5:05:34
  use to argue with the woman so determined. She wished Charles was there,
• 5:05:38
  but Charles had already gone posthaste for the doctor. With a firm step,
• 5:05:42
  Unus went across the field footpath she had not trodden for so long. She
• 5:05:45
  felt no fear, rather a sort of elation. Christopher needed her once more.
• 5:05:51
  The interloper who had come between them was not there. As she walked
• 5:05:53
  through the frosty twilight, she thought of the promise made to Naomi Holland years
• 5:05:57
  ago. Christopher's saw her coming and waved her back. Don't come any nearer,
• 5:06:03
  Uness. Didn't Caroline tell you I'm ticking small pox. Eunus did not
• 5:06:07
  pause. She went boldly through the yard and up the porch steps. He
• 5:06:11
  retreated before her and held the door. Unit's you're a crazy girl. Go
• 5:06:15
  home before it's too late. Eunice pushed open the door resolutely and went in.
• 5:06:21
  It's too late. Now I'm here, and I mean to stay and
• 5:06:23
  nurse you. If it's the small pox you've got, maybe it's not just
• 5:06:27
  now. When a person has a finger ache, he thinks it's smallpox.
• 5:06:30
  Anyhow, whatever it is, you ought to be in bed and looked after.
• 5:06:34
  You'll catch cold. Let me get a light and have a look at
• 5:06:37
  you. Christopher had sunk into a chair. His natural selfishness reasserted itself,
• 5:06:42
  and he made no further effort to dissuade Unus. She got a lamp and
• 5:06:45
  set it on the table by him while she scrutinized his face closely. You
• 5:06:49
  look feverish. What do you feel like? When did you take sick?
• 5:06:55
  Yesterday afternoon? I have tills and hot spells and pains in my back,
• 5:06:59
  Uness. Do you think it's really small parks, and will I die?
• 5:07:03
  He caught her hands and looked imploringly up at her, as a child might
• 5:07:07
  have done. Eunus felt a wave of love and tenderness, sweet warmly over
• 5:07:11
  her starved heart. Don't worry. Lots of people recover from small parks if
• 5:07:15
  they're properly nursed, and you'll be that for I'll see to it. Charles
• 5:07:21
  has gone for the doctor and will know when he comes. You must go
• 5:07:23
  straight to bed. She took off her hat and shawl and hung them up.
• 5:07:27
  She felt as much at home as if she had never been away.
• 5:07:30
  She had got back to her kingdom, and there was none to dispute it
• 5:07:33
  with her. When Doctor Spencer and old Giles Blewett, who had had the
• 5:07:37
  small box in his youth, came two hours later, they found Yunus in
• 5:07:41
  serene charge. The house was in order and reeking of disinfectant. Victoria's fine
• 5:07:45
  furniture and fixings were being bundled out of the parlor. There was no bedroom
• 5:07:48
  downstairs, and if Christopher was going to be ill, he must be installed
• 5:07:52
  there. The doctor looked grave. I don't like it, he said,
• 5:07:56
  I'm not quite sure yet if it is. The eruption will probably be out
• 5:08:02
  by morning. I must admit he has most of the symptoms. Will you
• 5:08:07
  have him taken to the hospital, No, said Unus decisively. I'll nurse
• 5:08:11
  him myself. I'm not afraid, and I'm well and strong, very well.
• 5:08:17
  You've been vaccinated lately, yes, well, nothing more can be done
• 5:08:21
  at present. You may as well lie down for a while and save your
• 5:08:25
  strengths. But Eunice could not do that. There was too much to attend
• 5:08:29
  to. She went out into the hall and threw up the window down below.
• 5:08:32
  At a safe distance, Charles Holland was waiting. The cold wind blew
• 5:08:36
  up to Eunus the odor of the disinfectant with which he had steeped himself.
• 5:08:40
  What does the doctor say, he shouted. He thinks it's the small parks.
• 5:08:44
  Have you said word to Victoria? Yes, Jim Blewett drove into town
• 5:08:48
  and told her she'll stay with her sister till it's over. Of course,
• 5:08:51
  it's the best thing for her to do. She's terribly frightened. Eunice's lip
• 5:08:55
  curled contemptuously to her. A wife who could desert her husband no matter what
• 5:09:00
  disease he had was an incomprehensible creature, but it was better so she would
• 5:09:03
  have Christopher all to herself. The night was long and wearisome, but the
• 5:09:07
  morning came all too soon for the dread certainty it brought. The doctor pronounced
• 5:09:11
  the case smallpox. Eunus had hoped against hope, but now knowing the worst,
• 5:09:17
  she was very calm and resolute. By noon, the fateful yellow flag
• 5:09:21
  was flying over the house, and all arrangements had been made. Caroline was
• 5:09:25
  to do the necessary cooking, and Charles was to bring the food and leave
• 5:09:27
  it in the yard. Old Charles Blewett was to come every day and attend
• 5:09:30
  to the stock, as well as help Unics with the sick man. And
• 5:09:34
  the long, hard fight with death began. It was a hard fight,
• 5:09:37
  indeed, Christopher Holland, in the clutches of the loathsome disease, was an
• 5:09:41
  object from which his nearest and dearest might have been pardoned for shrinking. But
• 5:09:45
  Eunice never faltered. She never left her post. Sometimes she dozed in a
• 5:09:49
  chair by the bed, but she never lay down. Her endurance was something
• 5:09:52
  wonderful, her patience and tenderness almost superhuman. To and fro she went in
• 5:09:57
  noiseless ministry as the long, dreadful days wore away. With a quiet smile
• 5:10:03
  on her lips and in her dark, sorrowful eyes the rapt look of a
• 5:10:06
  pictured saint in some dim cathedral niche. For her, there was no world
• 5:10:10
  outside the bare room which lay the repulsive objects she loved. One day,
• 5:10:14
  the doctor looked very grave. He had grown well hardened to pitiful scenes in
• 5:10:18
  his lifetime, but he shrunk from telling Yunus that her brother could not live.
• 5:10:22
  He had never seen such devotion as hers. It seemed brutal to tell
• 5:10:25
  her that it had been in vain, But Unus had seen it for herself.
• 5:10:29
  She took it very calmly, the doctor thought, and she had her
• 5:10:32
  reward at last. Such as it was, she thought it amply sufficient.
• 5:10:36
  One night, Christopher Holland opened his swollen eyes as she bent over him.
• 5:10:40
  They were alone in the old house. It was raining outside, and the
• 5:10:42
  drops rattled noisily on the panes. Christopher smiled at his sister with parched lips,
• 5:10:48
  and put out a feeble hand towards her illness. He said, faintly,
• 5:10:52
  you've been the best sister ever a man had. I haven't treated you
• 5:10:56
  right, for you've stood by me to the last. Tell Victoria, tell
• 5:11:03
  her to be good to you. His voice died away into an inarticulate murmur.
• 5:11:07
  Yunu's car was alone with her dead. They buried Christopher Holland in haste
• 5:11:12
  and privacy. The next day, the doctor disinfected the house and Eunus was
• 5:11:17
  to stay there alone until it might be safe to make other arrangements. She
• 5:11:21
  had not shed a tear. The doctor thought she was rather an odd person,
• 5:11:25
  but he had a great admiration for her. He told her she was
• 5:11:27
  the best nurse he had ever seen. To Eyunu's praise or blame mattered nothing.
• 5:11:33
  Something in her life had snapped, some vital interest had departed. She
• 5:11:37
  wondered how she could live through the dreary coming years. Late that night,
• 5:11:41
  she went into the room where her mother and brother had died. The window
• 5:11:45
  was open, and the cold, pure air was grateful to her after the
• 5:11:48
  drug laden atmosphere she had breathed for so long. She knelt down by the
• 5:11:52
  stripped bed. Mother, she said, aloud, I have kept my promise.
• 5:11:57
  When she tried to rise, long after, she staggered and fell across
• 5:12:00
  the bed with her hand pressed on her heart. Old Giles Blewett found her
• 5:12:06
  there in the morning. There was a smile on her face. End of
• 5:12:10
  story twelve. Eben Bell came in with an armful of wood and banged it
• 5:12:15
  cheerfully down in the box behind the glowing waterloo stove, which was coloring the
• 5:12:18
  heart of the little kitchen's gloom with tremulous rose red whirls of light. Yes,
• 5:12:23
  ss, that's the last store on my list. Bob's milking. Nothing
• 5:12:27
  more for me to do but put on my white collar for meeting. Avon
• 5:12:32
  Leah is more than lively since evangelist came, ain't it? Though? Molly
• 5:12:37
  Bell nodded. She was curling her hair before the tiny mirror that hung on
• 5:12:40
  the white washed wall and distorted her round pink and white face into a grotesque
• 5:12:45
  caricature. Wonder who'll stand up to night, said Eben reflectively, sitting down
• 5:12:49
  on the edge of the wood box. Three many sinners left in avon Leah,
• 5:12:53
  only a few hardened chaps like myself. You shouldn't talk like that,
• 5:12:57
  said Molly, rebukingly. Why father heard you? Father wouldn't hear me if
• 5:13:03
  I shouted in his air, returned Eben. He goes around these days like
• 5:13:07
  a man in a dream, and a mighty bad dream of that. Father
• 5:13:10
  has always been a good man. What's the matter with him? I don't
• 5:13:12
  know, said Molly, dropping her voice. Mother is dreadfully worried over him,
• 5:13:18
  and everyone is talking, Ebb. It just makes me squirm. Flora
• 5:13:22
  Jane Fletcher asked me last night, my father never testified, and him being
• 5:13:26
  one of the elders, she said, the minister was perplexed about it.
• 5:13:30
  I felt my face getting red. Why didn't you tell her it was our
• 5:13:33
  business of hers, said Eben angrily. Old Flora Jane had but to mind
• 5:13:38
  her own business. But all the folks are talking about it, Ebb.
• 5:13:41
  And mother is just fretting her heart out over it. Father has never acted
• 5:13:45
  like himself since these meetings began. He just goes there night after night and
• 5:13:49
  sits like a mummy with his head down. And almost everybody else and Avonley
• 5:13:55
  is testified. Oh no, there's lots, haven't, said Eben. Matthew
• 5:14:00
  Cuthbert never has no uncle Elisha, nor any of the whites. But everybody
• 5:14:04
  knows they don't believe in getting up and testifying, So nobody wonders when they
• 5:14:08
  don't. Besides, Molly laughed, Matthew could never get a word out in
• 5:14:14
  public. If he did believe in it, he'd be too shy. But
• 5:14:19
  she added with a sigh, it isn't the way with father. He believes
• 5:14:23
  in testimony. So people wonder why he doesn't get up, Why even old
• 5:14:29
  Josiah Sloane gets up every night. Well it's whisky is sticking out every which
• 5:14:33
  way in his head, ditto, interjected the graceless ebbin. When the minister
• 5:14:38
  calls for testimonials and all the folks look at our pew, I feel ready
• 5:14:42
  to sink through the floor with shame, sighed Molly. If father would just
• 5:14:47
  get up. Once Miriam Bell entered the kitchen, she was ready for the
• 5:14:52
  meeting to which may Dispenser was to take her. She was a tall,
• 5:14:56
  pale girl with a serious face and dark, thoughtful eyes. Unlike Molly,
• 5:15:00
  she had come under conviction during the meetings and had stood up for prayer and
• 5:15:04
  testimony several times. The evangelist thought her very spiritual. She heard Molly's concluding
• 5:15:10
  sentence and spoke reprovingly, you shouldn't criticize your father, Molly. It isn't
• 5:15:15
  for you to judge him. Evan had hastily slipped out. He was afraid
• 5:15:18
  Miriam would begin talking religion with him if he stayed. He had with difficulty
• 5:15:22
  escaped from an exhortation by Robert in the cow stable. There was no peace
• 5:15:26
  in Avonlea for the unregenerate, he reflected. Robert and Miriam had both come
• 5:15:30
  out, and Molly was hovering on the brink. Didn't I are the black
• 5:15:33
  sheep of the family, he said, with a laugh for which he at
• 5:15:37
  once felt guilty. Evan had been brought up with a strict reverence for all
• 5:15:41
  religious matters. On the surface, he might sometimes laugh at them, but
• 5:15:45
  the deeps troubled him whenever he did so. Indoors, Miriam touched her younger
• 5:15:48
  sister's shoulder and looked at her affectionately. Won't you decide to night, Molly,
• 5:15:53
  she asked, in a voice tremulous with emotion. Molly crimsoned and turned
• 5:15:57
  her face away uncomfortably. She did not know what answer to make, and
• 5:16:02
  was glad that jingle of bells outside saved her the necessity of replying. There's
• 5:16:06
  your bell, Miriam, she said, as she darted into the sitting room.
• 5:16:10
  Soon after, Evan brought the family, Pung and his chubby red mare
• 5:16:12
  to the door for Molly. He had not as yet attained to the dignity
• 5:16:15
  of a cutter of his own. That was for his elder brother, Robert,
• 5:16:18
  who presently came out in his new fur coat and drove dashingly away with
• 5:16:22
  bells and glitter. Thinks he's the people, remarked Eben, with a fraternal
• 5:16:26
  grin. The rich winter twilight was purpling over the white world. As they
• 5:16:30
  drove down the lane under the over arching wild cherry trees that glittered with a
• 5:16:34
  jemmy haw frost. The snow creaked and crisped under the runners. A shrill
• 5:16:38
  wind was keening in the leafless dog woods. Over the trees. The sky
• 5:16:42
  was a dome of silver with a loosened star or two. In the slope
• 5:16:45
  of the west earth stars gleamed warmly out here and there where. Homesteads were
• 5:16:49
  touched snugly away in their orchards or groves of birch the church from the jump
• 5:16:55
  to night, said Eban. It's so fine that foults will come from there.
• 5:17:00
  I guess it'll be exciting. If only father would testify, sighed Molly
• 5:17:04
  from the bottom of the pung where she was snuggled amid furst and straw.
• 5:17:08
  Miriam can say what she likes, but I do feel as if we were
• 5:17:11
  all disgraced. It sends a creep all over me to hear mister Bentley say,
• 5:17:17
  now, isn't there just one more to say a word for Jesus?
• 5:17:19
  And look right over at our father. Eb In flicked his mare with his
• 5:17:23
  whip and she broke into a trot. The silence was filled with a faint,
• 5:17:27
  fairy like melody from a far down the road, where a pung full
• 5:17:30
  of young folks from White Sands were singing hymn on their way to meeting.
• 5:17:33
  Look here, Mollie said Eben awkwardly, at last, are you going to
• 5:17:37
  stand up for prayers tonight? I? I can't as long as father acts
• 5:17:42
  this way, answered Molly in a chuked voice. I want to, eb
• 5:17:47
  and Marian Bob want me to, but I can't. I do hope that
• 5:17:51
  the evangelist won't come and talk to me special tonight. I feel as if
• 5:17:55
  I was always being pulled two different ways when he does. Back in the
• 5:17:57
  kitchen at home, missus Bell was waiting for her husband to bring the horse
• 5:18:02
  to the door. She was a slight, dark eyed woman with thin,
• 5:18:04
  vivid red cheeks. From out of the swathings in which she had wrapped her
• 5:18:07
  bonnet, her face glemmed, sad and troubled. Now and then she sighed
• 5:18:11
  heavily. The cat came to her from under the stove, languidly, stretching
• 5:18:15
  himself and yawning until all the red cavern of his mouth and throat was revealed.
• 5:18:21
  At the moment, he had an uncanny resemblance to Elder Joseph Blewett of
• 5:18:23
  White Sands, Roaring Joe, as the irreverent boys called him. When he
• 5:18:26
  grew excited and shouted. Missus Bell saw it, and then reproached herself for
• 5:18:30
  the sacrilege. But it's no wonder I've wicked thoughts, she said wearily.
• 5:18:37
  I'm that worried. I ain't rightly myself. If he would only tell me
• 5:18:41
  what the trouble is, maybe I could help him at any rate. I
• 5:18:45
  know it hurts me so to see him going about day after day with his
• 5:18:48
  head hanging and that look on his face, as if he had something fearful
• 5:18:52
  on his conscience. Him that never harmed a living soul, and then the
• 5:18:56
  way he groans and mutters in his sleep. He has always lived a just
• 5:19:00
  upright life. He hasn't no right to go on like this disgrace in his
• 5:19:04
  family. Missus Bell's angry sob was cut short by a sleigh at the door.
• 5:19:08
  Her husband poked in his busy iron gray head and said, now,
• 5:19:12
  mother. He helped her into the sleigh, tucked the rugs warmly around her,
• 5:19:17
  and put a hot brick at her feet. His solicitude hurt her.
• 5:19:19
  It was all for her material comfort. It did not matter to him what
• 5:19:23
  mental agony she might suffer over his strange attitude. For the first time in
• 5:19:27
  their married life, Mary Bell felt resentment against her husband. They drove along
• 5:19:33
  in silence, past the snow powdered hedges of spruce and under the arches of
• 5:19:37
  the forest roadways. They were late, and a great stillness was over all
• 5:19:41
  the land. David Bell never spoke. All his usual cheerful talkativeness had disappeared
• 5:19:45
  since the revival meetings had begun in Avonlea. From the first he had gone
• 5:19:49
  about as a man over whom some strange doom is impending, seeming oblivious to
• 5:19:53
  all that might be said or thought of him in his own family or in
• 5:19:56
  the church. Mary Bell thought she would go out of her mind her husband
• 5:20:00
  continued to act in this way. Her reflections were bitter and rebellious as they
• 5:20:03
  sped along through the glittering night of the winter's prime. I don't get one
• 5:20:07
  bit of good out of the meetings, she thought resentfully. There ain't any
• 5:20:11
  peace or joy from me, not even in testifying myself. When David sits
• 5:20:17
  there like a stick or stone. If he'd been opposed to the revivalist coming
• 5:20:21
  here like old Uncle Jerry, or if he didn't believe in public testimony,
• 5:20:25
  I wouldn't mind, I'd understand. But as it is, I feel dreadful,
• 5:20:29
  humiliated. Revival meetings had never been held in Avonlea before Uncle Jerry Macpherson,
• 5:20:34
  who was the supreme local authority in church matters, taking precedents even of
• 5:20:38
  the minister, had been uncompromisingly opposed to them. He was a stern,
• 5:20:41
  deeply religious Scotchman with a horror of the emotional form of religion, as long
• 5:20:47
  as Uncle Jerry's spare ascetic form and deeply graved, square jawed face filled his
• 5:20:51
  accustomed corner by the northwest window of Avonlea Church. No revivalist might venture therein,
• 5:20:56
  although the majority of the congregation, including the minister, would have welcomed
• 5:21:00
  one warmly. But now Uncle Jerry was sleeping peacefully under the tangled grasses and
• 5:21:04
  white snows of the burying ground. And if dead people ever do turn in
• 5:21:07
  their graves, uncle Jerry might well have turned in his when the revivalist came
• 5:21:11
  to Avonlea Church, and there followed the emotional services, public testimonies, and
• 5:21:15
  religious excitement which the old man's sturdy soul had always abhorred. Avonlea was a
• 5:21:19
  good field for an evangelist. The Reverend Jeffrey Mountain, who came to assist
• 5:21:23
  the Avonlea minister in revivifying the dry bones thereof knew this and reveled in the
• 5:21:27
  knowledge. It was not often that such a virgin parish could be found nowadays,
• 5:21:32
  with scores of impressionable, unspoiled souls on which fervid oratory could play skillfully
• 5:21:37
  as a master on a mighty organ, until every note in them thrilled to
• 5:21:41
  life and utterance. The Reverend Jeffrey Mountain was a good man of the earth,
• 5:21:45
  earthy, to be sure, but with an unquestionable sincerity of belief and
• 5:21:48
  purpose which went far to counterbalance the sensationalism of some of his methods. He
• 5:21:53
  was large and handsome, with a marvelously sweet and winning voice, a voice
• 5:21:56
  that could melt into irresistible tenderness, or swell into sonorous appeal and condemnation,
• 5:22:03
  or ring like a trumpet calling to battle. His frequent grammatical errors and lapses
• 5:22:07
  into vulgarity counted for nothing against its charm, and the most commonplace words in
• 5:22:11
  the world would have borred much of the power of real oratory from its magic.
• 5:22:15
  He knew its value and used it effectively, perhaps even ostentatiously. Jeffrey
• 5:22:21
  Mountain's religion and methods, like the man himself, were showy, but of
• 5:22:23
  their kind sincere, and though the good that he accomplished might not be unmixed,
• 5:22:27
  it was a quantity to be reckoned with. So the Reverend Jeffrey Mountain
• 5:22:32
  came to Avonlea conquering and to conquer. Night after night, the church was
• 5:22:36
  crowded with eager listeners who hung breathlessly on his words, and wept and thrilled
• 5:22:41
  and exalted as he willed into many young souls who appeals and warnings burned their
• 5:22:45
  way, and each night they rose for prayer in response to his invitation.
• 5:22:49
  Older Christians too took on a new lease of intensity, and even the unregenerate
• 5:22:53
  and the scoffers found a certain fascination in the meetings. Threading through it all
• 5:22:57
  for young and old, converted and unconverted, there was an acknowledged feeling for
• 5:23:02
  religious dissipation. Avonlea was a quiet place, and the revival meetings were lively.
• 5:23:07
  When David and Mary Bell reached the church, the services had begun and
• 5:23:10
  they heard the refrain of a Hallelujah hymn as they were crossing Harmon Andrew's field.
• 5:23:14
  David Bell left his wife at the platform and drove to the horse shed.
• 5:23:17
  Missus Bell unwound the scarf from her bonnet and shook the frost crystals from
• 5:23:21
  it. In the porch, Flora Jane Fletcher and her sister, Missus Harmon
• 5:23:25
  Andrews were talking in low whispers. Presently, Flora Jane put out her lank,
• 5:23:29
  cashmere gloved hand and plucked Missus Bell's shawl. Mary is the elder going
• 5:23:33
  to testify tonight, she asked, in a shrill whisper. Missus Bell winced
• 5:23:37
  she would have given much to be able to answer yes, but she had
• 5:23:41
  to say stiffly, I don't know, Flora Jane lifted her chin. Well,
• 5:23:48
  missus Bell, I only asked because everyone thinks it is strange. She
• 5:23:49
  doesn't, and an elder of all people, it looks as if he didn't
• 5:23:53
  think himself a Christian. You know, of course we all know better,
• 5:23:56
  but it looks that way. If I was you, I'd tell him folks
• 5:24:00
  was talking about it. Mister Bentley says it is hindering the full success of
• 5:24:03
  the meetings. Missus Bell turned on her tormentor in swift anger. She might
• 5:24:07
  resent her husband's strange behavior herself, but nobody else should dare to criticize him
• 5:24:11
  to her. I don't think you need to worry yourself about the elder,
• 5:24:15
  Flora Jane, she said, bitingly. Maybe'TI isn't the best Christians that
• 5:24:19
  do the most talking about it always. I guess as far as living up
• 5:24:23
  to his profession goals, the elder will compare pretty favorably with Levi Bolter,
• 5:24:29
  who gets up and testifies every night and cheats the very eye teeth out of
• 5:24:32
  people in the daytime. Levi Bolter was a middle aged widower with a large
• 5:24:37
  family who was supposed to have cast a matrimonial eye Flora Janewood. The use
• 5:24:41
  of his name was an effective thrust on missus Bell's part and silenced Flora Jane.
• 5:24:45
  Too angry for speech, she seized her sister's arm and hurried her into
• 5:24:48
  the church, But her victory could not remove from Mary Bell's soul the sting
• 5:24:53
  implanted there by Flora Jane's words. When her husband came up to the platform,
• 5:24:57
  she put her hand on his snow appealingly, Oh, David, won't
• 5:25:02
  you get up tonight? I do feel so dreadful. Bad folks are talking,
• 5:25:06
  so I just feel humiliated. David Bell hung his head like a shamed
• 5:25:10
  schoolboy. I can't marry, he said, huskily. Tinket, no use
• 5:25:14
  to pass through me. You don't care for my feelings, said his wife
• 5:25:18
  bitterly. And Molly won't come out because you're acting. So you're keeping her
• 5:25:22
  back from salvation, and you're hindering the success of the revival, Mister Bentley
• 5:25:26
  says, so David Bell groaned this sign of suffering wrung his wife's heart.
• 5:25:32
  With quick contrition, she whispered, there, never mind, David, I
• 5:25:34
  oughtn't to have spoken to you, so you know your duty best. Let's
• 5:25:38
  go in. Wait, His voice was imploring Mary. Is it true that
• 5:25:44
  Molly won't come out because of me? Am I standing in my child's light.
• 5:25:48
  I don't know. I guess not. Molly's just a foolish young girl.
• 5:25:55
  Yet never mind, come in. He followed her dejectedly in and up
• 5:25:59
  the to their pew in the center of the church. The building was warm
• 5:26:03
  and crowded. The pastor was reading the Bible lesson for the evening in the
• 5:26:07
  choir behind him. David Bell saw Molly's girlish face tinged with a troubled seriousness.
• 5:26:11
  His own wind ruddy face and bushy gray eyebrows worked convulsively with his inward
• 5:26:15
  throes. A sigh that was almost a groan burst from him. Oh do
• 5:26:19
  it, he said to himself in agony. When several more hymns had been
• 5:26:23
  sung and later rivals had begun to pack the aisles, the evangelist rose.
• 5:26:29
  His style for the evening was the tender, the pleading the solemn. He
• 5:26:33
  modulated his tones to marvelous sweetness and sent them thrillingly over the breathless pews,
• 5:26:37
  entangling the hearts and souls of his listeners in a mesh of subtle emotion.
• 5:26:41
  Many of the women began to cry softly. Fervent amends broke from some of
• 5:26:47
  the members. When the evangelist sat down after a closing appeal, which in
• 5:26:51
  its way was a masterpiece, an audible sigh of relieved tension passed like a
• 5:26:55
  wave over the audience. After prayer, the pastor made the usual request that
• 5:27:00
  if any of those present wished to come out on the side of Christ,
• 5:27:02
  they would signify the wish by rising for a moment in their places. After
• 5:27:07
  a brief interval, a pale boy under the gallery rose, followed by an
• 5:27:10
  old man at the top of the church. A frightened, sweet faced child
• 5:27:14
  of twelve got tremblingly upon her feet, and a dramatic thrill passed over the
• 5:27:17
  congregation when her mother suddenly stood up beside her. The evangelists, thank God,
• 5:27:22
  was hearty and insistent. David Bell looked almost imploringly at Molly, but
• 5:27:26
  she kept her seat with downcast eyes. Over in the big square stone pew,
• 5:27:30
  he saw Ebban, bending forward with his elbows on his knees, gazing
• 5:27:34
  frowningly at the floor. I'm a stumbling block to them both, he thought
• 5:27:37
  bitterly. A hymn was sung and prayer offered for those under conviction. Then
• 5:27:42
  testimonies were called for. The evangelist asked for them in tones which made it
• 5:27:47
  seem a personal request to every one in that building. Many testimonies followed,
• 5:27:52
  each infused with the personality of the giver. Most of them were brief and
• 5:27:56
  stereotyped. Finally, a pause ensued. The EVANGELI swept the pews with his
• 5:28:00
  kindling eyes and exclaimed, appealingly, has every Christian in this church to night
• 5:28:06
  spoken a word for his Master? There were many who had not testified,
• 5:28:11
  but every eye in the building followed the past's accusing glance to the bell pew.
• 5:28:17
  Molly Crimson with shame. Missus Bell cowered visibly. Although everybody looked thus
• 5:28:21
  at David Bell, nobody now expected him to testify. When he rose to
• 5:28:26
  his feet, a murmur of surprise passed over the audience, followed by a
• 5:28:30
  silence so complete as to be terrible. To David Bell, it seemed to
• 5:28:33
  possess the awe of final judgment. Twice, he opened his lips and tried
• 5:28:37
  vainly to speak. The third time he succeeded, but his voice sounded strangely
• 5:28:42
  in his own ears. He gripped the back of the pew before him with
• 5:28:45
  his knotty hands and fixed his eyes unseeingly on the Christian endeavor pledge that hung
• 5:28:51
  over the heads of the choir frethering than sisters, he said hoarsely, before
• 5:28:56
  I can say a word of Christian testimony here to night, I've got something
• 5:28:59
  to confess. It's been lying hard and heavy on my conscience ever since this
• 5:29:04
  meeting has begun. As long as I kept silence about it, I couldn't
• 5:29:08
  get up and bear with as Christ. Many of you have expected me to
• 5:29:14
  do it. Maybe I've been a stumbling block to some of you. This
• 5:29:18
  season of revival has brought no blessing to me because of my sin, which
• 5:29:23
  I repented of but tried to conceal. There has been spiritual darkness over me,
• 5:29:30
  friends and neighbors. I have always been held by you as a honest
• 5:29:34
  man. It was a shame of having you know I was not, which
• 5:29:38
  has kept me back from open confession and testimony. Just after these meetings commenced,
• 5:29:44
  I come home from town one night and found that somebody has passed a
• 5:29:48
  count of eighteen dollars beyond me. Then Satan entered into me and possessed me.
• 5:29:53
  When missus Rachel lyed come to me next day collecting for foreign missions for
• 5:30:00
  that ten dollar bill, she never knowed the difference and sent it away with
• 5:30:04
  the rest. But I knew I'd done a meaning simple thing. I couldn't
• 5:30:08
  drive it out of my thoughts. I feel days afterwards, I went down
• 5:30:12
  to missus Rachel and give her ten good dollars for the fund. I told
• 5:30:15
  her I had come to the conclusion I ought to give more than ten dollars
• 5:30:19
  out of my abundance to the Lord. That was a lie. Missus Lyn
• 5:30:25
  thought I was a generous man, and I felt ashamed to look her in
• 5:30:29
  the face. But I'd done what I could to right or wrong, and
• 5:30:32
  I thought it would be all right. But it wasn't. I've never known
• 5:30:37
  a minute's peace of mind or conscience since I tried to cheat the Lord,
• 5:30:41
  and then I tried to patch it up by doing something that redowned into my
• 5:30:45
  oldly credit. When these meetings begun, and everybody expected me to testify.
• 5:30:51
  I couldn't do it. It would have seemed like blasphemy, and I couldn't
• 5:30:56
  endure the thought of telling what I'd done either. I argued it out a
• 5:31:00
  thousand times that I hadn't done any real harm after all, But it was
• 5:31:03
  no use. I've been so wrapped up in my own brooding and misery that
• 5:31:07
  I didn't realize I was inflicting suffering on those dear to me by my conduct,
• 5:31:11
  and me beholding some of them back from the paths of salvation. But
• 5:31:15
  my eyes have been opened to destinate, and the Lord has given me the
• 5:31:19
  strength to confess my sin and glorify his holy name. The broken tones ceased,
• 5:31:26
  and David Bell sat down, wiping the great drops of perspiration from his
• 5:31:30
  brow. To a man of his training and cast of thought, no ordeal
• 5:31:33
  could be more terrible than that through which he had just passed. But underneath
• 5:31:37
  the turmoil of his emotion he felt a great calm and peace, threaded with
• 5:31:41
  the exultation of a hard won spiritual victory over the church. Was a solemn
• 5:31:45
  hush. The evangelist's amen was not spoken with his usual unctuous fervor, but
• 5:31:49
  very gently and reverently, in spite of his coarse fiber, he could appreciate
• 5:31:55
  the nobility behind such a confession as this, and the deeps of stern suffering
• 5:31:59
  it sounded. Before the last prayer, the pastor paused and looked around.
• 5:32:03
  Is there yet one, he asked gently, who wishes to be especially remembered
• 5:32:10
  in our concluding prayer? For a moment, nobody moved. Then Molly Bell
• 5:32:15
  stood up in the quiet seat, and down by the star of Ebben,
• 5:32:18
  his flushed, boyish face held high rose sturdily to his feet in the midst
• 5:32:22
  of his companions. Thank God, whispered Mary Bell. Amen, said her
• 5:32:27
  husband huskily. Let us pray, said mister Bentley. End of story thirteen.
• 5:32:34
  On my Dairy's wedding morning, I wakened early and went to her room.
• 5:32:40
  Long and long ago, she had made me promise that I would be
• 5:32:41
  the one to wake her on the morning of her wedding day. You were
• 5:32:45
  the first to take me in your arms when I came into the world,
• 5:32:48
  Aunt Rachel, she had said, and I want you to be the first
• 5:32:52
  to greet me on that wonderful day. But that was long ago, and
• 5:32:56
  all my heart foreboded that there would be no need of awakening her, and
• 5:33:00
  there was not. She was lying there, awake, very quiet, with
• 5:33:06
  her hand under her cheek, and her big blue eyes fixed on the window,
• 5:33:10
  through which a pale, dull a light was creeping. In a joyless
• 5:33:14
  light. It was, and enough to make a body shiver. I felt
• 5:33:18
  more like weeping than rejoicing, and my heart took to aching when I saw
• 5:33:22
  her there, so white and patient, more like a girl who was waiting
• 5:33:26
  for a winding sheet than for a bridal veil. But she smiled brave like
• 5:33:32
  when I sat down on her bed and took her hand. You look as
• 5:33:37
  if you haven't slept all night, derry, I said, I didn't,
• 5:33:41
  not a great deal, she answered me. The night didn't seem long.
• 5:33:45
  Now it seemed too short. I was thinking of a great many things.
• 5:33:48
  What time is it, aunt Rachel? Five o'clock? Then in six hours
• 5:33:52
  more she suddenly sat up in her bed, her great thick rope of brown
• 5:33:56
  hair falling over her white shuld, and flung her arms about me and burst
• 5:34:03
  into tears on my old breast. I petted and soothed her, and said
• 5:34:07
  not a word. And after a while she stopped crying, but she still
• 5:34:12
  sat with her head so that I couldn't see her face. We didn't think
• 5:34:15
  it would be like this once, did we, Aunt Rachel, She said,
• 5:34:19
  very softly. It shouldn't be like this now, I said, I
• 5:34:26
  had to say it. I never could hide a thought of that marriage,
• 5:34:30
  and I couldn't pretend to It was all her stepmother's doing. Right well,
• 5:34:33
  I knew that my dairy would never have taken Mark Foster else. Don't let
• 5:34:38
  us talk on that, she said, soft and beseeching, just the same
• 5:34:44
  way she used to speak when she was a baby child and wanted to coax
• 5:34:47
  me into something. Let us talk about the old days and him. I
• 5:34:52
  don't see much she is in talking of him when you're going to marry Mark
• 5:34:55
  Foster to day, I said, But she put her hand on my mouth
• 5:35:00
  for the last time, Aunt Rachel. After today, I can never talk
• 5:35:03
  of him or even think of him. It's four years since he went away.
• 5:35:07
  Do you remember how he looked, Aunt Rachel? I mind, well
• 5:35:11
  enough, I reckon, I said, kind of curtlike, and I did.
• 5:35:15
  Owen Blair hadn't a face a body could forget that long face of his.
• 5:35:21
  With its clean color and its eyes made to look love into a woman's.
• 5:35:26
  When I thought of Mark Foster's sallow skin and lank jaws, I felt
• 5:35:30
  sick like not that Mark was ugly, He was just a common looking fellow.
• 5:35:34
  He was so handsome, wasn't he. Aunt Rachel, my dairy went
• 5:35:37
  on in that patient voice of her, so tall and strong and handsome.
• 5:35:41
  I wish we hadn't parted in anger. It was so foolish of us to
• 5:35:45
  quarrel. But it would have been all right if he had lived to come
• 5:35:48
  back. I know it would have been all right. I know he didn't
• 5:35:51
  carry any bitterness against me to his death. I thought one Saunt Rachel,
• 5:35:55
  that I would go through life true to him, and then over on the
• 5:35:57
  other side, I'd meet him just as but for all his and his only.
• 5:36:02
  But it isn't to be thanks to your Stepma's weeding in Mark's Foster's scheming,
• 5:36:07
  said I. No, Mark didn't scheme, she said patiently, don't
• 5:36:11
  be unjust to Mark, Aunt Rachel. He has been very good and kind.
• 5:36:15
  He's as stupid as an owlet and as stubborn as a Solomon's mule.
• 5:36:18
  I said, for I would say it. He's just a common fellow,
• 5:36:22
  and yet he thinks is good enough for my beauty. Don't talk about Mark,
• 5:36:27
  she pleaded again. I mean to be a good faithful wife to him.
• 5:36:32
  I'm my own woman yet yet for just a few more sweet hours,
• 5:36:36
  and I want to give them to him, the last hours of my maidenhood.
• 5:36:40
  They must belong to him. So she talked of him, Me sitting
• 5:36:44
  there and holding her, with her lovely hair hanging down over my arm,
• 5:36:48
  and my heart aching so for her that it'd hurt bitter. She didn't feel
• 5:36:52
  as bad as I did, because she'd made up her mind what to do
• 5:36:56
  when was resigned. She was going to marry Mark Foster, but her heart
• 5:37:00
  was in France, in that grave. Nobody knew of where the Hunts had
• 5:37:03
  buried Owen Blair, if they had buried him at all, and she went
• 5:37:08
  over all they had been to each other since there were mites of babies,
• 5:37:12
  going to school together, and meaning even then to be married when they grew
• 5:37:15
  up, and the first words of love he had said to her, and
• 5:37:19
  what she'd dreamed and hoped for. The only thing she didn't bring up was
• 5:37:25
  the time he thrashed Mark Foster for bringing her apples. She never mentioned Mark's
• 5:37:30
  name. It was all Owen Owen, and how he looked, and what
• 5:37:34
  might have been if he hadn't gone off to the awful war and got shot.
• 5:37:38
  And there was me holding her and listening to it all, and her
• 5:37:42
  Stepma sleeping sound and triumphant in the next room. When she had talked it
• 5:37:48
  all out, she lay down on her pillow again. I got up and
• 5:37:52
  went downstairs to light the fire. I felt terribly old and tired. My
• 5:37:57
  feet seemed to drag, and a tear kept coming on my eyes, though
• 5:38:02
  I tried to keep them away. For well, I knew it was a
• 5:38:04
  bad omen to be weeping on a wedding day. Before long, Isabella Clark
• 5:38:11
  came down, bright and pleased. Looking enough she was. I'd never liked
• 5:38:15
  Isabella from the day Philippa's father brought her hair, and I liked her less
• 5:38:19
  than ever. This morning she was one of your sly, deep women,
• 5:38:23
  always smiling, smooth and scheming underneath it. I'll say it for her though
• 5:38:30
  she had been good to Philippa, but it was her doings that my dairy
• 5:38:33
  was to marry Mark Foster that day. Up the times, Rachel she said,
• 5:38:40
  smiling and speaking me fair as she always did, and hating me in
• 5:38:42
  her heart, as I well knew. That is right, for we'll have
• 5:38:47
  plenty to do to day. A wedding makes lots of work. Not this
• 5:38:51
  sort of wedding, I said, sourlike. I don't call it a wedding
• 5:38:55
  when two people get married and sneak off as if they were ashamed of it,
• 5:38:59
  as well they might be in this case. It was Philip's own wish
• 5:39:03
  that all should be very quiet, said Isabella, as smooth as scream.
• 5:39:07
  You know I'd have given her a big wedding if she'd wanted it. Oh,
• 5:39:11
  it's better quiet, I said. The few to see Philippa marry a
• 5:39:15
  man like Mark Foster, and the better. Mark Foster is a good man,
• 5:39:19
  Rachel. No good man would be content to buy a girl as he's
• 5:39:23
  bought Philippa, I said, determined to give it in to her. He's
• 5:39:29
  a common fellow, not fit for my dairy to wipe her feet on.
• 5:39:32
  It's well that her mother didn't live to see this day, But this day
• 5:39:34
  would never have come if she'd lived, I dare say Philippa's mother would have
• 5:39:38
  remembered that Mark foster is very well off, quite as readily as worse.
• 5:39:44
  People, said Isabella a little spitefully. I liked her better when she was
• 5:39:48
  spiteful than when she was smooth. I didn't feel so scared of her.
• 5:39:52
  Then the marriage was to be at eleven o'clock, and at nine I went
• 5:39:59
  up to her Philip address. She was no fussy bride, caring much what
• 5:40:03
  she looked like. If Edwin had been the bridegroom, it would have been
• 5:40:07
  different. Nothing would have pleased her then, but now it was only just
• 5:40:12
  that will do very well, Aunt Rachel, without even glancing at it.
• 5:40:18
  Still, nothing could prevent her from looking lovely when she was dressed. My
• 5:40:22
  dairy would have been a beauty in a beggar maid's rags, in a white
• 5:40:26
  dress and veil. She was as fair as a queen, and she was
• 5:40:30
  as good as she was pretty. It was the right sort of goodness,
• 5:40:33
  too, with just enough spice of original sin in it to keep it from
• 5:40:37
  spoiling by reason of oversweetness. Then she sent me out. I want to
• 5:40:42
  be alone my last hour, she said, kiss me, Aunt Rachel,
• 5:40:45
  Mother Rachel. When I'd gone down crying like the old fool I was I
• 5:40:51
  heard a rap at the door. My first thought was to go out and
• 5:40:55
  send Disabella to it, for I supposed it was Mark Foster, come ahead
• 5:40:59
  of time and small stomach I had for seeing him. I fall trembling even
• 5:41:04
  yet when I think, what if I had sent Isabella to that door.
• 5:41:10
  But go I did, and opened it defiant like, kind of hoping it
• 5:41:12
  was Mark Foster. To see the tears on my face, I opened it
• 5:41:18
  and staggered back like I'd got a blow. Owen lords of mercy on us.
• 5:41:25
  Oh wen, I said, just like that, going cold all over.
• 5:41:29
  For it's the truth that I thought it was his spirit come back to
• 5:41:32
  forbid that unholy marriage. But he sprang right in and caught my wrinkled old
• 5:41:37
  hands in a grasp that was of flesh and blood. Aunt Rachel, I'm
• 5:41:41
  not too late, he said, savage, like, tell me I'm in
• 5:41:45
  time. I looked up at him standing over me, there, tall and
• 5:41:48
  handsome, no change in him, except he was so brown and had a
• 5:41:52
  little white scar on his forehead. And though I couldn't understand at all,
• 5:41:56
  being all bewildered like, I felt a great deep thankfulness. No you're not
• 5:42:03
  too late, I said, thank God, said he under his breath,
• 5:42:07
  and then he pulled me into the parlor and shut the door. They told
• 5:42:11
  me at the station that Philippo was to be married to Mark Foster to day.
• 5:42:15
  I couldn't believe it, but I came here as fast as horseflesh could
• 5:42:18
  bring me. Aunt Rachel, it can't be true. She can't care for
• 5:42:22
  Mark Foster, even if she had forgotten me. It's true enough that she's
• 5:42:26
  to marry Mark, I said, half laughing, half crying, But she
• 5:42:30
  doesn't care for him. Every beat of her heart is for you. It's
• 5:42:36
  all her stepma's doing. Mark has got a mortgage on the place, and
• 5:42:40
  it told Isabella Clark that if Philippa would marry him, he'd burn the mortgage,
• 5:42:44
  and if she wouldn't, he'd for clothes. Philip I is sacrificing herself
• 5:42:48
  to save her stepma for a dead father's sake. It's all your fault,
• 5:42:52
  I cried, getting over my bewilderment. We thought you were dead. Why
• 5:42:56
  didn't you come home when you were alive? Why didn't you write? I
• 5:43:02
  did write after I got out of the hospital, several times, he said,
• 5:43:06
  and never a word in answer, Aunt Rachel. What was I to
• 5:43:08
  think when Philip I wouldn't answer my letters. She never got one, I
• 5:43:15
  cried. She wept her sweet eyes out of you. Somebody must have gotten
• 5:43:18
  those letters. And I knew then and I know now, though never a
• 5:43:25
  shadow of proof have I that Isabella Clarke had got them and kept them.
• 5:43:30
  That woman would stick at nothing. Well, we'll sift that matter some other
• 5:43:33
  time, said Erwin impatiently. There are other things to think of. Now
• 5:43:37
  I must see Philippa. I'll manage it for you, I said eagerly.
• 5:43:41
  But just as I spoke, the door opened and Isabella and Mark came in.
• 5:43:47
  Never shall I forget the look on Isabella's face. I almost felt sorry
• 5:43:51
  for her. She turned sickly yellow, and her eyes went wild. They
• 5:43:56
  were looking at the downfall of all her schemes and hopes. I didn't look
• 5:44:00
  at Mark Foster at first, and when I did, there wasn't anything to
• 5:44:03
  see. His face was just as sallow and wooden as ever, he looked
• 5:44:08
  undersize and common beside Owen. Nobody'd ever had picked him out for a bridegroom.
• 5:44:15
  Owen spoke, first, I want to see Philippa, he said,
• 5:44:19
  as if it were but yesterday, that he had gone away. All Isabella's
• 5:44:23
  smoothness and policy had dropped away from her, and the real woman stood there,
• 5:44:27
  plotting and unscrupulous as I'd always known her. You can't see her,
• 5:44:33
  she said, desperate, like she doesn't want to see you. You went
• 5:44:37
  and left her and never wrote, and she knew you weren't worth fretting over,
• 5:44:41
  and she has learned to care for a better man. I did write,
• 5:44:45
  and I think you know that better than most folks, said Owen,
• 5:44:48
  trying hard to speak quiet. As for the rest, I'm not going to
• 5:44:52
  discuss it with you. When I hear from Philippa's own lips that she cares
• 5:44:56
  for another man, I'll believe it, and not before you'll never hear it
• 5:45:00
  from her lips, said I Isabella gave me a venomous look. You'll not
• 5:45:04
  see Philippa until she is a better man's wife, she said, stubbornly,
• 5:45:08
  and I order you to leave my house, Owen Blair. No, it
• 5:45:14
  was Mark Foster who spoke. He hadn't said a word, but he came
• 5:45:18
  forward now and stood before Owen. Such a difference as there was between them,
• 5:45:23
  but he looked Owen right in the face, quiet like, and Owen
• 5:45:27
  glared back in fury. Will let satisfy you, Owen? If Philippa comes
• 5:45:32
  down here and chooses between us, Yes, it will, said Owen.
• 5:45:37
  Mark Foster turned to me, go and bring her down, said he Isabella,
• 5:45:42
  judging Philippa by herself, gave a little moan of despair. And Owen,
• 5:45:48
  blinded by love and hope, thought his case was one. But I
• 5:45:52
  knew my dairy too well to be glad, and Mark Foster did too,
• 5:45:56
  and I hated him for it. I went to my dairy's room, all
• 5:46:00
  pale and shaking. When I went in, she came to meet me like
• 5:46:04
  a girl going to meet death. Is it time? She said, with
• 5:46:10
  her hands locked tied together. I said not a word, hoping that the
• 5:46:15
  unlooked for sight of Owen would break down her a solution. I just held
• 5:46:19
  out my hand to her and led her downstairs. She clung to me,
• 5:46:22
  and her hands were as cold as snow. When I opened the parlor door,
• 5:46:27
  I stood back and pushed her in before me. She just cried,
• 5:46:32
  Owen, and shook so that I put my arms about her to steady her.
• 5:46:37
  Owen made a step towards her, his face and eyes all aflame with
• 5:46:41
  his love and longing, but Mark barred his way. Wait till she has
• 5:46:44
  made her choice, he said, and then he turned to Philippa. I
• 5:46:48
  couldn't see my dairy's face, but I could see Mark's, and there was
• 5:46:52
  no spark of feeling in it. Behind it was Isabella's, all pinched and
• 5:46:56
  gray. Philippal said, Mark Owen has come back. He says he's never
• 5:47:02
  forgotten you, and that he brought to you several times. I have told
• 5:47:06
  him that you have promised me, but I leave your freedom of choice.
• 5:47:10
  Which of us will you marry? Celapa. My dairy stood straight up and
• 5:47:14
  the trembling left her. She stepped back, and I could see her face
• 5:47:18
  white as the dead, but calm and resolved. I have promised to marry
• 5:47:22
  you Mark, and I will keep my word, she said. The collar
• 5:47:27
  came back to Isabella Clarke's face, but Mark's did not change. Philippa said,
• 5:47:33
  Owen, and the pain in his voice made my old heart ache bitterer
• 5:47:37
  than ever. Have you ceased to love me? My dairy would have been
• 5:47:41
  more than human if she could have resisted the pleading in his tone. She
• 5:47:45
  said, no word, but just looked at him. For a moment we
• 5:47:48
  all saw the look. Her whole soul, full of love for Owen,
• 5:47:52
  showed out in it. Then she turned and stood by Mark. Owen never
• 5:47:57
  said a word. He went as white as death and started for the door,
• 5:48:03
  But again Mark Foster put himself in the way. Wait, he said,
• 5:48:07
  She's made her choice, as I knew she would. But I have
• 5:48:11
  yet to make mine, and I choose to marry no woman whose love belongs
• 5:48:17
  to another living man. Philippa, I thought Owen Blair was dead, and
• 5:48:21
  I believe that when you were my wife, I could win your love.
• 5:48:23
  But I love you too well to make you miserable. Go to the man
• 5:48:27
  you love. You are free, and what is to become of me?
• 5:48:33
  Whend Isabella? Oh you, I had forgotten about you, said Mark,
• 5:48:37
  kind of wearylike. He took a paper from his pocket and dropped it in
• 5:48:42
  the grate. There is a mortgage, that is all you care about.
• 5:48:47
  I think, good morning. He went out. He was only a common
• 5:48:52
  fellow, but somehow, just then he looked every inch the gentleman. I
• 5:48:57
  would have gone after him and said something, but the look on his face
• 5:49:02
  now it was no time for my foolish old words. Philippa was crying with
• 5:49:07
  her head on orange shoulder. Isabella Clark waited to see the mortgage burned up,
• 5:49:12
  and then she came to me in the hall, all smooth and smiling
• 5:49:15
  again. Really, it's all very romantic, isn't it. I suppose it's
• 5:49:21
  better as it is, all things considered. Mark behaved splendidly, didn't he.
• 5:49:26
  Not many men would have done as he did for once in my life.
• 5:49:30
  I agreed with Isabella, but I felt like having a good cry over
• 5:49:33
  it all, and I had it. I was glad for my Dary's sake
• 5:49:37
  in Owens, but Mark Foster had paid the price of their joy, and
• 5:49:41
  I knew it had begged him of happiness for life. End of story fourteen.
• 5:49:48
  Few people in Avonlea could understand why Eleanor Blair had never married. She
• 5:49:52
  had been one of the most beautiful girls in our part of the island,
• 5:49:56
  and as a woman of fifty, she was still very attractive. In her
• 5:50:00
  youth she had had ever so many boats, as we of our generation well
• 5:50:03
  remembered. But after her return from visiting her brother Tom in the Canadian Northwest
• 5:50:07
  more than twenty five years ago, she had seemed to withdraw within herself,
• 5:50:11
  keeping all men at a safe, though friendly distance. She had been a
• 5:50:15
  gay, laughing girl when she went west. She came back quiet and serious,
• 5:50:19
  with a shadowed look in her eyes, which time could not quite succeed
• 5:50:23
  in plotting out. Eleanor had never talked much about her visit, except to
• 5:50:27
  describe the scenery in the life, which in that day was rough. Indeed,
• 5:50:32
  not even to me, who had grown up next door to her,
• 5:50:33
  and who had always seemed more a sister than a friend, did she speak
• 5:50:37
  of other than the merest commonplaces. But when Tom Blair made a flying trip
• 5:50:41
  back home some ten years later, there were one or two of us to
• 5:50:45
  whom he related the story of Jerome Carey, a story revealing only too well
• 5:50:48
  the reason for Eleanor's sad eyes and utter indifference to masculine attentions. I can
• 5:50:53
  recall almost his exact words and the inflections of his voice, and I remember
• 5:50:57
  too that it seemed to me a far cry from the tranquil, pleasant scene
• 5:51:00
  before us on that lovely summer day, to the elemental life of the flats.
• 5:51:06
  The flats was a forlorn little trading station. Fifteen miles at the river
• 5:51:08
  from Prince Albert, with a scanty population of half breeds and three white men.
• 5:51:14
  When Jerome Carey was sent to take charge of the telegraph office there,
• 5:51:17
  he cursed his fate in the victuresque language permissible in the far Northwest. Not
• 5:51:22
  that Kerry was a profane man, even as men go in the West.
• 5:51:25
  He was an English gentleman, and he kept both his life and his vocabulary
• 5:51:29
  pretty clean. But the flats, outside of the ragged cluster of log shacks
• 5:51:33
  which comprised the settlement, there was always a shifting fringe of teepees where the
• 5:51:37
  Indians who drifted down from the reservation camped with their dogs and squaws and purposes.
• 5:51:44
  There are standpoints from which Indians are interesting, but they cannot be said
• 5:51:47
  to offer congenial social attractions. For three weeks after Kerrey went to the flats,
• 5:51:51
  he was lonelier than he had ever imagined it possible to be, even
• 5:51:55
  in the Great Lone Land. If it had not been for teaching Paul Dumont
• 5:51:57
  the telegraphic code, Carrie believed he would have been driven to suicide in self
• 5:52:02
  defense. The telegraphic importance of the flats consisted in the fact that it was
• 5:52:06
  the starting point of three telegraph lines to remote trading posts up north. Not
• 5:52:11
  many mesters came therefrom, but the few that did come generally amounted to something
• 5:52:15
  worth while. Days and even weeks would pass without a single one being clicked
• 5:52:18
  to the flats. Carrie was debarred from talking over the wires to the Prince
• 5:52:22
  Albert Man for the reason that they were officially on bad terms. He blamed
• 5:52:26
  the latter for his transfer to the Flats. Carrie slept in aloft over the
• 5:52:32
  office and got his meals at Joe Esquince across the street. Joe Esquint's wife
• 5:52:36
  was a good cook, as cook's go among the breeds, and Carey soon
• 5:52:40
  became a great pet of hers. Carrie had a habit of becoming a pet
• 5:52:42
  with women. He had the way that has to be borne in a man
• 5:52:45
  and can never be acquired. Besides, he was as handsome as clean cut
• 5:52:48
  features, deep set, dark blue eyes, fair curls, and six feet
• 5:52:52
  of muscle could make him. Missus Joe Esquint thought that his mustache was the
• 5:52:56
  most wonderfully beautiful thing in its line that she had ever seen. Fortunately,
• 5:53:00
  Missus jo was so old and fat and ugly that even the malicious and inveterate
• 5:53:04
  gossip of skulking breeds and Indians squatting over teafee fires could not hint at anything
• 5:53:08
  questionable in the relations between her and Carey. But it was a different matter
• 5:53:12
  with Tannis Dumont. Tannis came home from the academy at Prince Albert early in
• 5:53:17
  July, when Carey had been in the Flats a month and had exhausted all
• 5:53:19
  the new novelties of his position. Paul Dumont had already become so expert at
• 5:53:23
  the code that his mistakes no longer afforded Carey any fun, and the latter
• 5:53:27
  was getting desperate. He had serious intentions of throwing up the business altogether and
• 5:53:33
  betaking himself to an Alberta ranch, where at least one would have the excitement
• 5:53:36
  of roping horses. When he saw Tannis Dumont, he thought he would hang
• 5:53:40
  on a while longer anyway. Tannis was the daughter of old August Dumont,
• 5:53:44
  who kept the one small store at the flats, lived in the one frame
• 5:53:48
  house that the place boasted, and was reputed to be worth an amount of
• 5:53:51
  money which in half breed eyes was a colossal fortune. Old Augose was black
• 5:53:56
  and ugly and notoriously bad tempered, but Tannis was a beauty. Tannis's great
• 5:54:00
  grandmother had been a Kree squaw who married a French trapper. The son of
• 5:54:04
  this union became, in due time the father of Augus Dumont. Auguste married
• 5:54:08
  a woman whose mother was a French half breed and whose father was a pure
• 5:54:11
  bred Hyland scotchman. The result of this atrocious mixture was in its justification Tannis
• 5:54:18
  of the Flats, who looked as if all the blood of all the Howards
• 5:54:19
  might be running in her veins. But after all, the dominant current in
• 5:54:23
  those same veins was from the race of plain and prairie. The practiced eye
• 5:54:27
  detected it in the slender stateliness of carriage, in the graceful yet voluptuous curves
• 5:54:32
  of the lithe body, in the smallness and delicacy of hand and foot,
• 5:54:36
  in the purple sheen on straight, falling masses of blue black hair, and
• 5:54:40
  more than all else, in the long dark eye, full and soft yet
• 5:54:44
  alight with a slumbering fire. France, too was responsible for somewhat in Tennis.
• 5:54:48
  It gave her a light step in place of the stealthy half bred shuffle.
• 5:54:52
  It arched her red upper lip into a more tremulous bow. It lent
• 5:54:56
  a note of laughter to her voice, and as sprightly a way to her
• 5:55:00
  tongue. As for her red headed Scotch grandfather, he had bequeathed her a
• 5:55:03
  somewhat whiter skin and ruddier bloom than is usually found in the breeds. Old
• 5:55:08
  August was mighty proud of Tannis. He had sent her to school for four
• 5:55:12
  years in Prince Albert found that his girl should have the best a high school
• 5:55:17
  course and considerable mingling in the social life of the town. For Old August
• 5:55:21
  was a man to be conciliated by astute politicians, since he controlled some two
• 5:55:23
  or three hundred half breed votes. Sent Tannis home to the flats with a
• 5:55:27
  very thin but very deceptive veneer of culture and civilization overlying the primitive passions and
• 5:55:33
  ideas of her nature. Carrie saw only the beauty and the veneer. He
• 5:55:37
  made the mistake of thinking that Tannis was what she seemed to be, a
• 5:55:41
  fairly well educated, up to date young woman with whom a friendly flirtation was
• 5:55:45
  just what it was with white womankind, the pleasant amusement of an hour or
• 5:55:48
  season. It was a mistake, a very big mistake. Tannis understood something
• 5:55:55
  of piano playing, something less of grammar and Latin, and something still less
• 5:55:57
  of social prevaricate, but she understood absolutely nothing of flirtation. You can never
• 5:56:03
  get an Indian to see the sense of platonics. Carrie found the flats quite
• 5:56:07
  tolerable after the homecoming of Tennis. He soon fell into the habit of dropping
• 5:56:11
  into the Dumont House to spend the evening talking with Tennis in the parlor,
• 5:56:15
  which apartment was amazingly well done for a place like the Flats. Tennis had
• 5:56:19
  not stayed Prince Albert Parla's four years for nothing, or playing violin and piano
• 5:56:23
  duets with her. When music and conversation pauled, they went for long gallops
• 5:56:27
  over the prairies together. Tennis rode to perfection and managed her bad tempered brute
• 5:56:32
  of a pony with skill and grace that made Carey applaud her. She was
• 5:56:36
  glorious on horseback. Sometimes he grew tired of the prairies, and then he
• 5:56:40
  and Tennis paddled themselves over the river in Nichee Joe's dugout and landed on the
• 5:56:45
  old trail that struck straight into the wooded belt of the Saskatchewan Valley, leading
• 5:56:48
  north to Trading Postson on the frontier of civilization. There they rambled under huge
• 5:56:52
  pines, hoary with the age of centuries, and Carrie talked to Tennis about
• 5:56:56
  England and quoted poetry to her. Hanns liked poetry. She had studied it
• 5:57:02
  at school and understood it fairly well. But once she told Carrey that she
• 5:57:06
  thought it a long, roundabout way of saying what you could say just as
• 5:57:07
  well, and about a dozen playing words, carry laughed. He liked to
• 5:57:11
  evoke these little speeches of hers. They sounded very clever, dropping from such
• 5:57:15
  arched, ripely tinted lips. If you had told Carrey that he was playing
• 5:57:19
  with fire, he would have laughed at you. In the first place,
• 5:57:22
  he was not in the slightest degree in love with Tannis. He merely admired
• 5:57:26
  and liked her. In the second place, it never occurred to him that
• 5:57:30
  Tannis might be in love with him. Why he had never attempted any love
• 5:57:33
  making with her, And above all he was obsessed with that aforesaid fatal idea
• 5:57:37
  that Tannis was like the women he had associated with all his life, in
• 5:57:41
  reality as well as in appearance. He did not know enough of the racial
• 5:57:45
  characteristics to understand. But if Carrie thought his relationship with Tannis was that of
• 5:57:49
  friendship merely, he was the only one in the flats who did think so.
• 5:57:52
  All the half breeds and quarter breeds and any fractional breeds there believed that
• 5:57:56
  he meant to marry Tannis. There would have been nothing surprising to them in
• 5:58:00
  that they did not know that Carree's second cousin was a baronet, and they
• 5:58:04
  would not have understood that it need make any difference if they had. They
• 5:58:08
  thought that rich Old Auguste, heiress, who had been to school for four
• 5:58:11
  years in Prince Albert, was a catch for anybody. Old Auguste himself shrugged
• 5:58:15
  his shoulders over it, and was well pleased enough. An Englishman was apprized
• 5:58:19
  by way of a husband for a half bred girl, even if he were
• 5:58:22
  only a telegraph operator. Young Paul Dumont worshiped Carrey, and the half Scotch
• 5:58:27
  mother who might have understood was dead. In all the flats there were but
• 5:58:32
  two people who disapproved of the match, they thought an assured thing. One
• 5:58:36
  of these was the little priest Father Gabriel. He liked Tannis and he liked
• 5:58:40
  Carrie, but he shook his head dubiously when he heard the gossip of the
• 5:58:42
  Shacks and Teapees. Religions might mingle, but the different bloods are it was
• 5:58:48
  not the right thing. Tannis was a good girl, and a beautiful one,
• 5:58:51
  but she was no fit mate for the fair thoroughbred Englishman. Father Gabriel
• 5:58:56
  wished fervently that Jerome Carey might soon be transferred elsewhere. He even went to
• 5:59:00
  Prince Albert and did a little wire pulling of his own account, but nothing
• 5:59:03
  came of it. He was on the wrong side of politics. The other
• 5:59:07
  malecontent was Lazare Merrimaie, a lazy, besotted French half breed who was,
• 5:59:11
  after his fashion, in love with Tanners. He could never have got her,
• 5:59:15
  and he knew it. Old Augusta and young Paul would have incontinently riddled
• 5:59:18
  him with bullets had he ventured near the house as a suitor. But he
• 5:59:22
  hated Carey none the less and watched for a chance to do him an ill
• 5:59:26
  turn. There is no worse enemy in all the world than a half breed.
• 5:59:30
  Your true Indian is bad enough, but his diluted descendant is ten times
• 5:59:33
  worse. As for Tannis, she loved Carey with all her heart, and
• 5:59:38
  that was all there was about it. If Elinor Blair had never gone to
• 5:59:42
  Prince Albert, there is no knowing what might have happened. Carrie, so
• 5:59:45
  powerful in propinquity, might even have ended by learning to love Tennis and marrying
• 5:59:49
  her to his own worldly undoing. But Elinor did go to Prince Albert,
• 5:59:53
  and her going ended all things for Tannis of the Flats. Carrie met her
• 5:59:59
  one evening as September, when he had ridden into town to attend a dance,
• 6:00:02
  leaving Paul DeMont in charge of the telegraph office. Elinor had just arrived
• 6:00:06
  in Prince Albert on a visit to tom to which she had been looking forward
• 6:00:10
  during the five years since he had married and moved out west from ellen Lee.
• 6:00:12
  As I have already said, she was very beautiful at that time,
• 6:00:15
  and Carrie fell in love with her at the very first moment of their meeting.
• 6:00:21
  During the next three weeks he went to town nine times and called the
• 6:00:23
  Dumont's only once there were no more rides and walks with Tennis. This was
• 6:00:26
  not intentional neglect on his part. He had simply forgotten all about her.
• 6:00:32
  The breeds surmised a lover's quarrel, but Tannis understood there was another woman back
• 6:00:36
  there in town. It would be quite impossible to put on paper in the
• 6:00:40
  adequate idea of her emotions at this stage. One night, she followed Carrie
• 6:00:44
  when he went to Prince Albert, riding out of earshot behind him on her
• 6:00:47
  plan's pony, but keeping him in sight. Lazare, in a fit of
• 6:00:51
  jealousy, had followed Tennis, spying on her until she started back to the
• 6:00:53
  flats. After that, he watched both Carrie and Tannis incessantly, and months
• 6:00:59
  later told tom All he had learned through his low sneaking. Tannis trailed Carry
• 6:01:03
  to the Blair house on the bluffs above the town and saw him tie his
• 6:01:07
  horse at the gate and enter. She too, tied her pony to a
• 6:01:11
  poplar lower down, and then crept stealthily through the willows at the side of
• 6:01:15
  the house until she was close to the windows. Through one of them,
• 6:01:18
  she could see Carry and Eleanor the half bred girl crouched down in the shadow
• 6:01:22
  and glared at her rival. She saw the pretty, fair tinted face,
• 6:01:26
  the fluffy coronal of golden hair, the blue, laughing eyes of the woman
• 6:01:30
  whom Jerome Carey loved. And she realized very plainly that there was nothing left
• 6:01:34
  to hope for she, Tannis of the Flats, could never compete with that
• 6:01:37
  other. It was well to know so much, at least after a time,
• 6:01:42
  she crept quietly away, loosed her pony, and lashed him mercilessly with
• 6:01:47
  her whip through the streets of town and out the long, dusty river trail.
• 6:01:51
  A man turned and looked after her as she tore past the brightly lighted
• 6:01:53
  stoor on Water Street. That was Tanners of the Flats, He said to
• 6:01:57
  a companion. She in town last winter, going to school, a beauty
• 6:02:03
  and a bit of the devil, like all those brief girls. What thunderish
• 6:02:07
  run like that? For one day A fortnight later, Carey went over to
• 6:02:11
  the river alone for a ramble up the northern trail and an undisturbed dream of
• 6:02:15
  Eleanor. When he came back, Tennis was standing at the canoe landing under
• 6:02:18
  a pine tree in a rain of finely sifted sunlight. She was waiting for
• 6:02:22
  him, and she said, without any preface, mister Carey, why do
• 6:02:26
  you never come to see me? Now? Carrie flushed like any girl.
• 6:02:30
  Her tone and look made him very uncomfortable. He remembered self reproachfully that he
• 6:02:33
  must have seemed very neglectful, and he stammered something about having been busy.
• 6:02:38
  Not very busy, said Tennis, with her terrible directness, It is not
• 6:02:42
  that. It is because you are going to Prince Albert to see a white
• 6:02:45
  woman. Even in his embarrassment, Carrey noted this was the first time he
• 6:02:49
  had ever heard Tennis use the expression a white woman or any other that would
• 6:02:53
  indicate her sense of a difference between herself and the dominant race. He understood
• 6:02:57
  at that same moment that this girl was not to be trifled with, that
• 6:03:00
  she would have the truth out of him first or last. But he felt
• 6:03:04
  indescribably foolish. I suppose, so, he answered lamely. And what about
• 6:03:11
  me? Asked Tennis, When you come to think of it, This was
• 6:03:14
  an embarrassing question, especially for Kerrie, who had believed that Tennis understood the
• 6:03:18
  game and played it for his own sake. As he did. I don't
• 6:03:21
  understand you, Tennis, he said, hurriedly. You have made me love
• 6:03:25
  you, said Tennis. The words sound flat enough on paper. They did
• 6:03:29
  not sound flat to Tom, as repeated by Lazare, And they sounded anything
• 6:03:33
  but flat to Carrie, hurled at him as they were by a woman trembling
• 6:03:36
  with all the passions of her savage ancestry. Tennis had justified her criticism of
• 6:03:41
  poetry, she had said in her half dozen words instinct, with all the
• 6:03:45
  despair and pain and wild appeal that all the poetry in the world had ever
• 6:03:48
  expressed. They made Kerrey feel like a scoundrel. All at once he realized
• 6:03:52
  how impossible it would be to explain matters to Tennis, and that he would
• 6:03:56
  make a still bigger fool of himself if he tried. I am very sorry,
• 6:04:00
  he stammered, like a whip schoolboy. It is no matter, interrupted
• 6:04:04
  Tennis violently. What difference does it make about me a half breed girl.
• 6:04:10
  We breed girls are only born to amuse the white men, That is so,
• 6:04:14
  Is it not, then when they are tired of us, they push
• 6:04:17
  us aside and go back to their own kind. Oh it is very well,
• 6:04:22
  but I will not forget. My father and brother will not forget.
• 6:04:26
  They will make you sorry to some purpose. She turned and stalked away to
• 6:04:30
  her canoe. He waited under the pines until she crossed the river. Then
• 6:04:34
  he too went miserably home. What a mess he had contrived to make of
• 6:04:38
  things, poor Tennis. How handsome she had looked in her fury, and
• 6:04:42
  how much like a squaw. The racial marks always come out plainly under the
• 6:04:47
  stress of emotion. As Tom noted later, her threat did not disturb him.
• 6:04:51
  If young Paul and old August made things unpleasant for him, he thought
• 6:04:55
  himself more than a match for them. It was the thought of the suffering
• 6:04:57
  he had brought upon Tennis that worried him. He had, not, to
• 6:05:00
  be sure, been a villain, but he had been a fool, and
• 6:05:03
  that is almost as bad under some circumstances. The dumands, however, did
• 6:05:07
  not trouble him. After all, Tannis's four years in Prince Albert had not
• 6:05:11
  been altogether wasted. She knew that white girls did not mix their male relatives
• 6:05:15
  up in a vendetta when a man ceased calling on them, and she had
• 6:05:18
  nothing else to complain of that could be put in words. After some reflection,
• 6:05:22
  she concluded to hold her tongue. She even laughed when Old August asked
• 6:05:25
  her what was up between her and her fellow, and she said she had
• 6:05:27
  grown tired of him. Old August shrugged his shoulders resignedly. It was just
• 6:05:32
  as well. Maybe those English sons in law sometimes gave themselves too many airs.
• 6:05:37
  Sir Carree rode off into town, and Tannis fied her time and plotted
• 6:05:41
  futile schemes of revenge and lazare marry me scowled and got drunk, And life
• 6:05:45
  went on at the Flats as usual until the last week in October, when
• 6:05:49
  a big wind and rain storm swept over the Northland. It was a bad
• 6:05:52
  night. The wires were down between the Flats and Prince Albert, and all
• 6:05:56
  communication with the outside world was cut off. Over at joe Esquince, the
• 6:06:00
  breeds were having a carouse in the honor of Joe's birthday. Paul DeMont had
• 6:06:04
  gone over and Carrie was alone in the office, smoking lazily and dreaming of
• 6:06:08
  Eleanor. Suddenly, above the plash of rain and whistle of wind, he
• 6:06:11
  heard outcries in the street. Running to the door, he was met by
• 6:06:15
  Missus Joe Esquint, who grasped him breathlessly. Mister carry, come quick,
• 6:06:22
  Laza. He killed Paul. They fight. Carrie, with a smothered oath,
• 6:06:26
  rushed across the street. He had been afraid of something of the sort
• 6:06:30
  and had advised Paul not to go for those half breed carousals almost always ended
• 6:06:33
  in a free fight. He burst into the kitchen at Joe Esquince to find
• 6:06:37
  a circle of mute spectators ranged round the room, and Paul and Lazarre in
• 6:06:41
  a clinch at the center. Carrie was relieved to find it was only in
• 6:06:45
  a fair of fists. He promptly hurled himself at the combatants and dragged Paul
• 6:06:48
  away, while Missus Joe Esquint, Joe himself being dead drunken corner, flung
• 6:06:53
  her fat arms about Lazarre and held him back. Stop this, said Carrie,
• 6:06:57
  sternly, let me get Adam, foamed Paul. He insulted my sister.
• 6:07:03
  He said that you let me get adam. He could not Writhe free
• 6:07:07
  of Carrie's iron grip. Lazare, with a snarl like a wolf, sent
• 6:07:11
  Missus Joe's spinning and rushed at Paul Carrie struck out as best he could,
• 6:07:15
  and Laza went reeling back against the table. It went over with a crash,
• 6:07:18
  and the light went out. Missus Jo's shrieks might have brought the roof
• 6:07:22
  down. In the confusion that ensued, two pistol shots rang out sharply.
• 6:07:27
  There was a cry, a groan, a fall, then a rush for
• 6:07:30
  the door. When missus Jo Esquint's sister in law, Marie, dashed in
• 6:07:33
  with another lamp. Missus Jo was still shrieking. Paul Dumont was leaning sickly
• 6:07:38
  against the wall with a dangling arm, and Carrie lay face downward on the
• 6:07:41
  floor with blood trickling from under him. Marie Esquint was a woman of nerve.
• 6:07:47
  She told Missus Jo to shut up, and she turned carry over.
• 6:07:51
  He was conscious, but seemed dazed and could not help himself. Marie put
• 6:07:55
  a coat under his head, told Paul to lie down on the bench,
• 6:07:57
  and ordered Missus Joe to get a bed ready, and went for the doctor.
• 6:08:00
  It happened that there was a doctor in the flats that night, a
• 6:08:03
  Prince Albert man who had been up at the reservation fixing up some sick Indians
• 6:08:07
  that had been storm stayed at Old August's on his way back. Marie soon
• 6:08:11
  returned with the doctor, Old August and Tennis. Carrey was carried in and
• 6:08:15
  laid on missus Esquint's bed. The doctor made a brief examination while missus Jo
• 6:08:19
  sat on the floor and howled at the top of her lungs. Then he
• 6:08:22
  shook his head sholt on the back. He said briefly, how long?
• 6:08:26
  Asked carry understanding? Perhaps till morning, answered the doctor. Missus Jo gave
• 6:08:33
  a louder howl than ever at this, and Tannis came and stood by the
• 6:08:36
  bed. The doctor, knowing he could do nothing for Carrey, hurried into
• 6:08:38
  the kitchen to attend to Paul, who had badly shattered Art, and Marie
• 6:08:41
  went with him. Carrie looked stupidly at Tanners. Send for her, he
• 6:08:47
  said, Tennis smiled cruelly. There is no way. The wires are down,
• 6:08:52
  and there is no man at the flat. Who will go to town
• 6:08:53
  to night? She answered, my God, I must see her before I
• 6:08:57
  die, burst out very pleadingly. Where is father, do Gabriel? He
• 6:09:02
  will go. The priest went to town last night and have not come back,
• 6:09:06
  said Tennis. Carrey groaned and shut his eyes. If Father Gabriel was
• 6:09:11
  away, there was indeed no one to go Old August and the doctor could
• 6:09:14
  not leave Paul. And he knew well that no breed of them all the
• 6:09:17
  flats would turn out on such a night, even if they were not one
• 6:09:19
  and all mortally scared of being mixed up in the law and justice that would
• 6:09:22
  be sure to follow the affair, he must die without seeing Elinor. Tanners
• 6:09:27
  looked inscrutably down on the pale face on Missus Joe Esquint's dirty pillows. Her
• 6:09:33
  immobile features gave no sign of the conflict raging within her. After a short
• 6:09:37
  space, she turned and went out, shutting the door softly on the wounded
• 6:09:40
  man and Missus jo whose howls had now simmered down to wines. In the
• 6:09:44
  next room, Paul was crying out with pain as the doctor worked on his
• 6:09:47
  arm, but Tannis did not go to him. Instead, she slipped out
• 6:09:51
  and hurried down the stormy street to Old or Goose's stable. Five minutes later,
• 6:09:55
  she was galloping down the black, windlashed river trail on her way to
• 6:09:59
  town to bring Eleanor Blair to her lover's death bed. I hold that no
• 6:10:03
  woman ever did anything more unselfish than this deed of Tannis. For the sake
• 6:10:07
  of love. She put under her feet the jealousy and hatred that had clamored
• 6:10:10
  at her heart. She held not only revenge, but the dearer joy of
• 6:10:14
  watching Carrie to the last in the hollow of her hand, and she cast
• 6:10:17
  both away, that the man she loved might draw his dying breath somewhat easier.
• 6:10:22
  In a white woman, the deed would have been merely commendable. In
• 6:10:25
  Tannis of the Flats, with her ancestry and tradition, it was lofty self
• 6:10:27
  sacrifice. It was eight o'clock when Tannis left the flats. It was ten
• 6:10:33
  when she drew Bridle Before the house on the bluff. Eleanor was regaling Tom
• 6:10:37
  and his wife with avonlea gossip when the maid came to the door, Please
• 6:10:41
  em, there's a breed girl out on the verandah, and she's asking for
• 6:10:44
  miss Blair. Eleanor went out wonderingly, followed by Tom. Tannis whipping hands,
• 6:10:48
  stood by the open door, with the stormy night behind her, and
• 6:10:52
  the warm ruby light at the hall lamp showering over her white face, and
• 6:10:56
  the long rope of drenched hair that fell from her bare head. She looked
• 6:11:00
  wild enough. Your ome carry was shyt in a quarrel at Joe Kant's to
• 6:11:03
  night. She said, he is dying. He wants you. I have
• 6:11:07
  come for you. Eleanor gave a little cry and seated herself on Tom's shoulder.
• 6:11:11
  Tom said he knew he made some exclamation of horror. He had never
• 6:11:15
  approved of Carrey's attendance to Eleanor, but such news was enough to shock anybody.
• 6:11:21
  He was determined, however, that Eleanor should not go out in such
• 6:11:23
  a night and to such a scene, and told Tennis so in no uncertain
• 6:11:26
  terms. I came through the storm, said Tennis, contemptuously. Can't she
• 6:11:32
  do as much for him as I can? The good old Island blood in
• 6:11:36
  Eleanor's veins showed to some purpose. Yes, she answered firmly. No,
• 6:11:40
  Tom, daughter object, I must go get my horse and your own.
• 6:11:45
  Ten minutes later, three riders galloped down the bluff and took the river trail.
• 6:11:49
  Fortunately the wind was at their backs and the worst of the storm was
• 6:11:52
  over. Still it was a wild, black ride enough. Tom rode,
• 6:11:56
  cursing softly under his breath, He did not like the whole thing. Carrie
• 6:12:00
  done to death in some low, half breched shack, this handsome, sullen
• 6:12:03
  girl coming as his messenger, this nightmare writhe through wind and rain. It
• 6:12:07
  all savored too much of melodrama, even for the north Land, where people
• 6:12:11
  still did things in a primitive way. He heartily wished Elinor had never left
• 6:12:15
  Avonlea. It was past twelve when they reached the plats. Tannis was the
• 6:12:18
  only one who seemed to be able to think aherently. It was she who
• 6:12:22
  told Tom where to take the horses, and then led Eleanor to the room
• 6:12:25
  where Carrie was dying. The doctor was sitting by the bedside, and missus
• 6:12:29
  Jo was curled up in a corner, sniffling to herself. Tanis took her
• 6:12:33
  by the shoulder and turned her none too gently out of the room. The
• 6:12:36
  doctor, understanding, left at once. As Tanna shut the door, she
• 6:12:40
  saw Eleanor sink on her knees by the bed and Carrie's trembling hand go out
• 6:12:44
  to her head. Tanna sat down on the floor outside of the door and
• 6:12:48
  wrapped herself up in a shawl. Marie esquint dropped in that attitude. She
• 6:12:52
  looked exactly like a squaw, and all comers and goers, even old Augose,
• 6:12:56
  who was hunting for her, thought she was one and left her undisturbed.
• 6:13:00
  She watched there until dawn came whitely up over the prairies, and Jerome
• 6:13:03
  Carey died. She knew when it happened. By Eleanor's crime. Tennis sprang
• 6:13:07
  up and rushed in. She was too late for even a parting look.
• 6:13:11
  The girl took Carrey's hand in hers and turned to the weeping Eleanor with a
• 6:13:15
  cold dignity. Now go, she said, you had him in life to
• 6:13:18
  the very last. He is mine. Now there must be some arrangements made,
• 6:13:23
  faltered Eleanor, My father and brother will make all arrangements if you pull
• 6:13:27
  them, said Tennis steadily. You had no near relatives in the world,
• 6:13:33
  none at all in Candor, he told me. So. You may send
• 6:13:37
  out a Protestant minister from town if you like, but he will be very
• 6:13:40
  pure at the flats, and his grieve will be mine all mine. Go,
• 6:13:45
  and Elinor, reluctant, sorrowful, yet swayed by a will and an
• 6:13:49
  emotion stronger than her own, went slowly out, leaving Tennis of the Flats
• 6:13:53
  alone with her dead end of story fifteen