She turned to George: “Of course your
mother told you that Dr. Gray came after me.
He came to ask me as an especial favour to go to
his new house in Hartley, and do what I could to arrange
it, and to have a supper ready. I was glad.
I’d seen six weddings that I can remember,
all exactly alike — there’s nothing
to them; but brushing those new carpets, unwrapping
nice furniture and placing it, washing pretty new
dishes, untying the loveliest gifts and arranging
them — that was something new in a
Bates wedding. Oh, but I had a splendid time!”
George Holt looked at his mother in too great disgust
to conceal his feelings.
“Another gilt-edged scandal gone sky high,”
he said. Then he turned to Kate. “One
of the women who worked in your mother’s kitchen
is visiting here, and she started a great hullabaloo
because you were not at the wedding. You probably
haven’t got a leg left to stand on. I
suspect the old cats of Walden have chewed them both
off, and all the while you were happy, and doing the
thing any girl would much rather have done. Lord,
I hate this eternal picking! How did you come
back, Kate?”
“Dr. Gray brought me.”
“I should think it would have made talk, your
staying there with him,” commented Mrs. Holt.
“Fortunately, the people of Hartley seem reasonably
busy attending their own affairs,” said Kate.
“Doctor Gray had been boarding at the hotel
all fall, so he just went on living there until after
the wedding.”
George glared at his mother, but she avoided his eyes,
and laughing in a silly, half-confused manner she
said: “How much money did your father
give the bride?”
“I can’t tell you, in even dollars and
cents,” said Kate. “Nancy Ellen
didn’t say.”
Kate saw the movement of George’s foot under
the table, and knew that he was trying to make his
mother stop asking questions; so she began talking
to him about his work. As soon as the meal was
finished he walked with her to school, visiting until
the session began. He remained three days, and
before he left he told Kate he loved her, and asked
her to be his wife. She looked at him in surprise
and said: “Why, I never thought of such
a thing! How long have you been thinking about
it?”
“Since the first instant I saw you!” he
declared with fervour.
“Hum! Matter of months,” said Kate.
“Well, when I have had that much time, I will
tell you what I think about it.”
Kate finished her school in the spring, then went
for a visit with Nancy Ellen and Robert, before George
Holt returned. She was thankful to leave Walden
without having seen him, for she had decided, without
giving the matter much thought, that he was not the
man she wanted to marry. In her heart she regretted
having previously contracted for the Walden school
another winter because she felt certain that with
the influence of Dr. Gray, she could now secure a
position in Hartley that would enable her either to
live with, or to be near, her sister. With this
thought in mind, she tried to make the acquaintance
of teachers in the school who lived in Hartley and
she soon became rather intimate with one of them.
