ope. The doctor stopped his
horse suddenly to show Nan some flowers which grew at the roadside,
some brilliant cardinals, and she climbed quickly down to gather them.
There was an unwritten law that they should keep watch, one to the
right hand, and the other to the left, and such treasures of blossoms
or wild fruit seldom escaped Nan's vision. Now she felt as if she had
been wrong to let her thoughts go wandering, and her cheeks were
almost as bright as the scarlet flowers themselves, as she clambered
back to the wagon seat. But the doctor was in deep thought, and had
nothing more to say for the next mile or two. It had become like a
bad-case day suddenly and without apparent reason; but Nan had no
suspicion that she was the patient in charge whose welfare seemed to
the doctor to be dependent upon his own decisions.

IX

AT DR. LESLIE'S

That evening Dr. Leslie made signs that he was not to be interrupted,
and even shut the study doors, to which precaution he seldom resorted.
He was evidently disturbed when an hour later a vigorous knocking was
heard at the seldom-used front entrance, and Marilla ushered in with
anything but triumph an elderly gentleman who had been his college
classmate. Marilla's countenance wore a forbidding expression, and as
she withdrew she took pains to shut the door between the hall and
dining-room with considerable violence. It was almost never closed
under ordinary circumstances, but the faithful housekeeper was
impelled to express her wrath in some way, and this was the first
that offered itself. Nan was sitting peacefully in the kitchen playing
with her black cat and telling herself stories no doubt, and was quite
unprepared for Marilla's change of temper. The bell for the Friday
evening prayer-meeting was tolling its last strokes and it was
Marilla's habit to attend that service. She was apt to be kept closely
at home, it must be acknowledged, and this was one of her few social
indulgences. Since Nan had joined the family and proved that she could
be trusted with a message, she had been left in charge of the house
during this coveted hour on Friday evenings.

Marilla had descended from her room arrayed for church going, but now
her bonnet was pulled off as if that were the prime offender, and when
the child looked wonderingly around the kitchen, she saw the bread-box
brought out from the closet and put down very hard on a table, while
Marilla began directly afterward to rattle