"

Chapter XLI

During Jerome's absence at Simon Basset's, Squire Eben Merritt's wife
came across lots to the Edwardses' house. A little red shawl over her
shoulders stood out triangularly to the gusts of spring wind; a
forked end of red ribbon on her bonnet fluttered sharply. Abigail
Merritt moved with nervous impetus across the fields, like an erratic
thread of separate purpose through an even web. All the red of the
spring landscape was in the swift passing of her garments. All that
was not in straight parallels of accord with the universal yielding
of nature to the simplest law of growth was in her soul. She passed
on her own errand, cutting, as it were, a swath of spirit through the
soft influence of the spring. Abigail Merritt's mouth was tightly
shut, her eyes were narrow gleams of resolution, there were red spots
on her cheeks. She had left Lucina weeping on the bed in her little
chamber; she had said nothing to her, nor her husband, but she had
resolved upon her own course of action.

"It is time something was done," said Abigail Merritt, nodding to
herself in the glass as she tied on her bonnet, "and I am going to do
it."

When she reached the Edwardses' house, she stepped briskly up the
path, bowing to Mrs. Edwards in the window, and Elmira opened the
door before she knocked.

"Good-afternoon; I would like to see your brother a moment," Abigail
announced, abruptly.

"He isn't at home," said Elmira; "something has happened at Simon
Basset's--I don't know what. A boy came after Jerome, and he hurried
off. Father's gone too." Elmira blushed all over her face and neck
as she spoke. "Jerome will be sorry he wasn't at home," she added.
She had a curious sense of innocent confusion over the situation.

Mrs. Edwards blushed too, like an echo, though she gave her little
dark head an impatient toss.

"Then please ask your brother if he will be so kind as to come to the
Squire's after supper to-night," she returned, in her smart, prettily
dictatorial way, and took leave at once, though Elmira urged her
politely to come in and rest and wait for her brother's return.

She gave the message to Jerome when he came home. "What do you
suppose she wants of you?" she asked, wonderingly. Jerome shook his
head.

"Why, you look as white as a sheet!" said Elmira, staring at him.

"I've seen enough this afternoon to make any man look white," Jerome
replied, evasively.

"Well, I suppose you have; it is awful