“I believe you,” she said simply.

At that moment Mandy appeared at the door with the familiar cry, “Supper’s ready,” and Quincy led Alice to her old place at the table and took his seat at her side.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The town meeting.

The next day was Friday.  After breakfast Quincy went to his room and looked over the memorandum pad upon which he had taken pleasure in jotting down the various items of his campaign against the singing-master.  As he looked at the pad he checked off the items that he had attended to, but suddenly started back with an expression of disgust.

“Confound it,” said he, “I neglected to telegraph to those congressmen when I was at Eastborough Centre last Tuesday.  I hope I’m not too late.”  He reflected for a moment, then said to himself, “No, it’s all right; this is the long session, and my friends will be in Washington.”

He immediately wrote two letters to his Congressional friends, stating that he had good reasons for having the appointment of Obadiah Strout as postmaster at Mason’s Corner, Mass., held up for a week.

“At the end of that time,” he wrote, “I will either withdraw my objections or present them in detail, accompanied by affidavits in opposition to the appointment.”

Having finished the letters, he went downstairs to the kitchen, and, as usual, found Hiram engaged in conversation with Mandy.

“You are just the man I want,” said he to Hiram; “I would like to have you take these letters to the Mason’s Corner post office and mail them at once.  You can tell Mr. Hill that the papers relating to the store are nearly ready, and if he and his son will come here this afternoon we will execute them.  I would like to have you and Mr. Pettengill on hand as witnesses.”

Hiram started off on his mission, and Quincy returned to his room and busied himself with the preparation of the documents for the transfer of the grocery store, and the making out of the necessary notes to cover the twenty-five hundred dollars due for the same.

He had not seen Alice at breakfast, nor did she appear at the dinner table.  He had followed the rule since she came to the house not to make any open inquiries about her health, but from words dropped by Ezekiel and Uncle Ike, he had kept fairly well informed as to the result of her treatment.  At dinner Ezekiel remarked that his sister had commenced to take her new medicine, and that he reckoned it must be purty powerful, for she had said that she didn’t wish anything to eat, and didn’t want anything sent to her room.

Quincy politely expressed his regrets at her indisposition and trusted that she would soon be able to join them again at meal time.