“He isn’t shy, believe me,”
retorted Miss Cornelia. “Absent-minded,—yes—but
shy, no. And for all he is so abstracted and
dreamy he has a very good opinion of himself, man-like,
and when he is really awake he wouldn’t think
it much of a chore to ask any woman to have him.
No, the trouble is, he’s deluding himself into
believing that his heart is buried, while all the
time it’s beating away inside of him just like
anybody else’s. He may have a notion of
Rosemary West and he may not. If he has, we
must make the best of it. She is a sweet girl
and a fine housekeeper, and would make a good mother
for those poor, neglected children. And,”
concluded Miss Cornelia resignedly, “my own
grandmother was an Episcopalian.”
CHAPTER XVIII. MARY BRINGS EVIL TIDINGS
Mary Vance, whom Mrs. Elliott had sent up to the manse
on an errand, came tripping down Rainbow Valley on
her way to Ingleside where she was to spend the afternoon
with Nan and Di as a Saturday treat. Nan and
Di had been picking spruce gum with Faith and Una
in the manse woods and the four of them were now sitting
on a fallen pine by the brook, all, it must be admitted,
chewing rather vigorously. The Ingleside twins
were not allowed to chew spruce gum anywhere but in
the seclusion of Rainbow Valley, but Faith and Una
were unrestricted by such rules of etiquette and cheerfully
chewed it everywhere, at home and abroad, to the very
proper horror of the Glen. Faith had been chewing
it in church one day; but Jerry had realized the enormity
of that, and had given her such an older-brotherly
scolding that she never did it again.
“I was so hungry I just felt as if I had to
chew something,” she protested. “You
know well enough what breakfast was like, Jerry Meredith.
I couldn’t eat scorched porridge and my
stomach just felt so queer and empty. The gum
helped a lot—and I didn’t chew very
hard. I didn’t make any noise and I never
cracked the gum once.”
“You mustn’t chew gum in church, anyhow,”
insisted Jerry. “Don’t let me catch
you at it again.”
“You chewed yourself in prayer-meeting last
week,” cried Faith.
“That’s different,” said Jerry
loftily. “Prayer-meeting isn’t on
Sunday. Besides, I sat away at the back in a
dark seat and nobody saw me. You were sitting
right up front where every one saw you. And
I took the gum out of my mouth for the last hymn and
stuck it on the back of the pew right up in front where
every one saw you. And I took the gum out of
my mouth for the last hymn and stuck it on the back
of the pew in front of me. Then I came away
and forgot it. I went back to get it next morning,
but it was gone. I suppose Rod Warren swiped
it. And it was a dandy chew.”
Copyrights
Rainbow Valley from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
