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That he had not done so he felt assured, but he could not be angry with him, as he came smilingly toward them, asking if they had talked privacy long enough, and glancing rather curiously at Maddy's face.
The next day, as Guy had proposed, he rode down to Honedale, taking Maddy with him, and offering so many reasons why she should not be called home, that the old people began to relent, particularly as they saw how Maddy's heart was set on the lessons Guy was going to give her.
That was all, Uncle Joseph was not there, and vague terror entered Maddy's heart lest he had been taken back to the asylum. "I will get him out," she said; "I will take care of him. I should die with nothing to do; and I promised grandpa "
Markham's visit; but he had not associated the two together until now, when he saw the whole, and almost as much as the doctor himself regretted the part he had had in Maddy's illness and her grandfather's distress. "Doc," he said, laying his hand on the doctor's arm, "I am that old hunks, the miserly rascal who refused the money. I met the old man going home that day, and he asked me for help.
Instantly Maddy's face flushed all over with nervous dread, as she thought: "What if I should fail?" fancying that to do so would be an eternal disgrace. But she should not. She was called by everybody the very best scholar in school, the one whom the teachers always put forward when desirous of showing off, the one whom Mr. Tiverton, and Squire Lamb, and Lawyer Whittemore always noticed so much.
A few days before Maddy's departure, grandpa went up to see "the madam;" anxious to know something more than hearsay about a person to whose care his child was to be partially intrusted. Agnes was in her room when told who wanted to see her. Starting quickly, she turned so deadly white that Maddy, who brought the message, flew to her side, asking in much alarm, what was the matter.
The tear stains were all washed away, Jessie using very freely her mother's eau-de-cologne, and making Maddy's cheeks very red with rubbing, the nut-brown hair was brushed until it shone like satin, a little narrow band of black velvet ribbon was pinned about Maddy's snowy neck, and then she was ready for that terrible ordeal, her first dinner at Aikenside.
"I'll strike a light," she said, rising to her feet, and trying not to glance at the shadowy corners filling her with fear. The lamp was found, and its friendly beams soon dispersed the darkness from the corners and the fear from Maddy's heart, but it could not drive from her mind thoughts of what might at that moment be transpiring at Aikenside.
Yes, Maddy was satisfied, and after a little the doctor continued: "By the way, Maddy, I have some idea of going to Europe for a few months, or a year or more. You know it does a physician good to study awhile in Paris. What do you think of it? Shall I go?" The doctor had become quite necessary to Maddy's happiness.
With this feeling, it was exceedingly painful for him to hear Maddy's sudden exclamation: "Oh, oh! over twenty years that's dreadful. She must be most glad he's dead. I would not marry a man more than five years older than I am." "Not if you loved him, and he loved you very, very dearly?" the doctor asked, his voice low and tender in its tone.
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