as she wondered if her father knew that she was following
his boyish footsteps, for the first time in her life,
on that Sunday morning. She would have liked
to wander away by herself and find her way about the
town, but such a proposal was not to be thought of,
and all at once Miss Nancy turned up a narrow side
street toward a high-walled brick church, and presently
they walked side by side up the broad aisle so far
that it seemed to Nan as if her aunt were aiming for
the chancel itself, and had some public ceremony in
view, of a penitential nature. They were by no
means early, and the girl was disagreeably aware of
a little rustle of eagerness and curiosity as she
took her seat, and was glad to have fairly gained the
shelter of the high-backed pew as she bent her head.
But Miss Prince the senior seemed calm; she said her
prayer, settled herself as usual, putting the footstool
in its right place and finding the psalms and the
collect. She then laid the prayer-book on the
cushion beside her and folded her hands in her lap,
before she turned discreetly to say good-morning to
Miss Fraley, and exchange greetings until the clergyman
made his appearance. Nan had taken the seat next
the pew door, and was looking about her with great
interest, forgetting herself and her aunt as she wondered
that so dear and quaint a place of worship should
be still left in her iconoclastic native country.
She had seen nothing even in Boston like this, there
were so many antique splendors about the chancel,
and many mural tablets on the walls, where she read
with sudden delight her own family name and the list
of virtues which had belonged to some of her ancestors.
The dear old place! there never had been and never
could be any church like it; it seemed to have been
waiting all her life for her to come to say her prayers
where so many of her own people had brought their sins
and sorrows in the long years that were gone.
She only wished that the doctor were with her, and
the same feeling that used to make her watch for him
in her childhood until he smiled back again filled
all her loving and grateful heart. She knew that
he must be thinking of her that morning; he was not
in church himself, he had planned a long drive to
the next town but one, to see a dying man, who seemed
to be helped only by this beloved physician’s
presence. There had been some talk between Dr.
Leslie and Nan about a medicine which might possibly
be of use, and she found herself thinking about that
again and again. She had reminded the doctor
of it and he had seemed very pleased. It must
be longer ago than yesterday since she left Oldfields,
it already counted for half a lifetime.