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Then there came the sound of a heavy door slammed forcibly against the wind, the rasp of a bolt in its lock, and Katharine knew that she had not been heard, and that she had been shut up alone in the great, desolate place. It was not liking for Squire Pettijohn which had caused Montgomery to vanish when called to meet him. Quite the reverse.
This was an unusual thing to do, for letting carriage-tops back is apt to crack the leather, and "Jim" Pettijohn cracked nothing which could be preserved. Eunice comprehended and smiled quietly in her corner of the seat, talking at length as she had done to stave off any further prying into her affairs. Even yet she was not to be let free.
After the leaves changed color, nobody went to and fro save those who "belonged," as the storekeeper, the milliner, and Squire Pettijohn, the lawyer; and it had been ten years, at least, since Reuben's four-in-hand was brought to a halt before Miss Eunice Maitland's gate.
A woman screamed, and every eye turned upon two tardy and uninvited guests, who, leading each other as it were, now entered the scene. Whitey, the cow, and Nate Pettijohn tramp! THE silence which followed lasted for a long time, during which Whitey stared mildly about upon her many acquaintances as if daring one of them to accuse her of vagrancy.
I heard him as I was crossing the gravel road to the barn, yet when we got there an' called to him he simply wasn't. He knowed he'd been doin' wrong, most like, else he'd have come down." "Did you tell him that it was Squire Pettijohn who wished to see him?" "Yes. Course. I thought that would scare him into comin' right away." Miss Maitland laughed, and answered: "My dear, misguided woman!
No matter how much he likes Squire Pettijohn, he shouldn't forget his manners; especially since it is I, not that gentleman, who is going to cure him of stuttering. And what a stupid I am not to call him! If he's forgotten I must remind him." With that she crept as near the edge of the mow as she dared, and shouted: "Montgomery! Monty Sturtevant! Boy! Come back and help me down!"
No, none of these; nor of any old pensioner at the "Farm." Then, suddenly, she thought of Squire Pettijohn, terrible man, who had used to visit that "Farm," inspect its workings, suggest further extreme economies, where, it seemed to the beneficiaries, that economy had already reached its limit, ask personal questions, such as even a pauper may resent, and make himself generally obnoxious.
I shall be glad to hear anything you have to say." "Well, then! I'd hate to think it of any any good ghost, but there was somethin' 'bout that face 'at made me remember somebody I'd seen, an' the somebody was Squire Pettijohn!" "Child, how absurd!" "Yes'm, I s'pose it is. But there was them same big eyebrows standin' out fur from this white face as his'n does from his red one.
That was the beginnin', an' now, they say, Pettijohn owns about every acre of the old Sturtevant property, an' could turn the Madam out any day. Yet, somehow, he dassent. Indeed, I'd like to see the man could walk straight up to that old lady an' say: 'Your house is mine.
Why she could hardly have explained. Surely, not from any affection for Nathan Pettijohn, returned rascal, nor from any sentimental memory of bygone years, such as her mistress's; but just naturally, in sympathy with two other tear-wet faces. She found the tears a relief. Indeed, they all appeared to do so, and began to retrace the way to the woodland cottage with swifter steps.
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