United States or Serbia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Suppose we stand still for a minute," said Doctor Lavendar. They stood still; the rain fell heavily on Doctor Lavendar's shoulders and dripped from the brim of his old felt hat. "She deserted me," John said. "There is nothing to be said in excuse. Nothing." "No, desertion can never be excused," the old man agreed; "and, as you say, when your body was born, she left it.
He ventured to look up at her as he spoke, and she was smiling although her lip quivered and her eyes were full of tears. Lavendar's heart beat uncomfortably fast as they walked through the meadow towards the stile which led into the churchyard. "It's too soon to go in yet," he said. "The bells haven't begun." "Let's stop here. It's cool in the shadow," said Robinette.
But there was nothing mystical about her; she was just modest and full of pleasant silences and soft gaieties and simple, startling truth-telling. At first, when they came to live near Perryville, she used, when the weather was fine, to walk over the grassy road, under the brown and white branches of the sycamores, into Old Chester, to Dr. Lavendar's church.
For once Robinette's ready tongue played her false, and a sense of loneliness overcame her at the sound of Lavendar's name. She gathered up her long white skirts and got into the carriage with as much dignity as she could muster, while Carnaby, his eyes twinkling with mischief, stood ready to shut the door after Miss Smeardon. "Hope you'll enjoy your drive," he jeered.
Lavendar's eagerness at the sight of the little boy who came running up the garden path, his hurry to open the front door and bring him into the study to present him to Mrs. Richie, fussing and proud and a little tremulous, would have touched her, if she had noticed him. But she did not notice him, the child absorbed her. She could not leave him.
No one could have told from Lavendar's face, when he appeared fresh and smiling at the breakfast table half an hour later, that he was hatching any deep-laid schemes. Robinette entered the dining room five minutes late, as usual, pretty as a pink, breathless with hurrying.
"Oh, Charlotta dear, I'd have told you all about it if it were my secret . . . but it's Miss Lavendar's, you see. However, I'll tell you this much . . . and if nothing comes of it you must never breathe a word about it to a living soul. You see, Prince Charming is coming tonight.
Then he kissed her perfunctorily and said, "Goo'-by goo'-by," and took the night train for Mercer. He lost no time when he got back to Old Chester in putting his plan through. The very next afternoon, knowing that Johnny would be at Doctor Lavendar's Collect Class, he called on Miss Lydia.
His merry, square-set face was changed and looked actually haggard, and his eyes searched Lavendar's with an expression oddly different from their usual fearless and straightforward one. They seemed afraid. "Was it my grandmother's was it our fault?" he asked. "I, I feel like a murderer. Upon my soul, I do!" "Don't encourage morbid ideas, my dear fellow!" said Lavendar in a matter-of-fact tone.
Her hands grew cold and her voice trembled. "Miss Lavendar, I have something to tell you . . . something very important. Can you guess what it is?" Anne never supposed that Miss Lavendar could GUESS; but Miss Lavendar's face grew very pale and Miss Lavendar said in a quiet, still voice, from which all the color and sparkle that Miss Lavendar's voice usually suggested had faded.
Word Of The Day