I have more important
matters that demand my attention--that is all. It is not necessary to
interrupt them now, you can explain when the business meeting opens.
They would excuse me I am sure, if they knew how important it was." And
before poor Charity had time to fairly grasp the situation he was gone,
slipping into the hall for his hat, and out by a side door.
Miss Farwell from meeting the minister, had gone directly to her room,
but she could not go about her packing. Dropping into a chair by the
window she sat staring into the tops of the big maples. She did not see
the trees. She saw a vast stretch of rolling country, dotted with
farm-buildings and stacks, across which the flying cloud-shadows raced,
a weed-grown yard with a gap in the tumble-down fence, an old deserted
school building, and a big clean-looking man standing, with the sun-light
on his red-brown hair.
"And he--he was that." She had thought him something so fine and strong.
He seemed so made for fine and strong things. And he had let her go
on--leading her to talk as she would have talked only to intimate friends
who would understand. She had so wanted him to understand. And then he
had thought it all a joke! The gray eyes filled with angry tears, and the
fine chin quivered. She sprang to her feet. "I won't!" she said aloud, "I
won't!"
Why should she indeed think a second time of this stranger--this
preacher? The room seemed close. She felt that she could not stay
another minute in the house, with those people down stairs.
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