ed on Bridgeport and completely overwhelmed poor
Miss Sara in his wrath. He laughed at the idea of countenancing an
engagement between a child like Marcella and an obscure country
doctor. And he carried Marcella off with him!

She had to go, of course. He was her legal guardian and he would
listen to no pleadings. He didn't know anything about Marcella's
character, and he thought that a new life out in the great world would
soon blot out her fancy.

After the first outburst of tears and prayers Marcella took it very
calmly, as far as outward eye could see. She was as cool and dignified
and stately as a young queen. On the night before she went away she
came over to say good-bye to me. She did not even shed any tears, but
the look in her eyes told of bitter hurt. "It is goodbye for five
years, Miss Tranquil," she said steadily. "When I am twenty-one I will
come back. That is the only promise I can make. They will not let me
write to John or Aunt Sara and I will do nothing underhanded. But I
will not forget and I will come back."

Richard Barry would not even let her see Doctor John alone again. She
had to bid him good-bye beneath the cold, contemptuous eyes of the man
of the world. So there was just a hand-clasp and one long deep look
between them that was tenderer than any kiss and more eloquent than
any words.

"I will come back when I am twenty-one," said Marcella. And I saw
Richard Barry smile.

So Marcella went away and in all Bridgeport there were only two people
who believed she would ever return. There is no keeping a secret in
Bridgeport, and everybody knew all about the love affair between
Marcella and the doctor and about the promise she had made. Everybody
sympathized with the doctor because everybody believed he had lost his
sweetheart.

"For of course she'll never come back," said Mrs. Riddell to me.
"She's only a child and she'll soon forget him. She's to be sent to
school and taken abroad and between times she'll live with the Richard
Barrys; and they move, as everyone knows, in the very highest and
gayest circles. I'm sorry for the doctor, though. A man of his age
doesn't get over a thing like that in a hurry and he was perfectly
silly over Marcella. But it really serves him right for falling in
love with a child."

There are times when Martha Riddell gets on my nerves. She's a
good-hearted woman, and she means well; but she rasps--rasps terribly.

Even Miss Sara exasperated me. But then she h