tty pocket handkerchief from each. They came
in flocks, each with flowers, most with a towel or some small
remembrance; then the elders began to come, merchants with comforts,
blankets, and towels, hardware men with frying pans, flat irons, and
tinware. By ten o'clock almost everyone in Walden had carried Kate
some small gift, wished her joy all the more earnestly, because they
felt the chances of her ever having it were so small, and had gone
their way, leaving her feeling better than she had thought possible.

She slipped into her room alone and read two letters, one a few
typewritten lines from John Jardine, saying he had been at Hartley,
also at Walden, and having found her married and gone, there was
nothing for him to do but wish that the man she married had it in his
heart to guard her life and happiness as he would have done. He would
never cease to love her, and if at any time in her life there was
anything he could do for her, would she please let him know. Kate
dropped the letter on her dresser, with a purpose, and let it lie
there. The other was from Robert. He said he was very sorry, but he
could do nothing with Nancy Ellen at present. He hoped she would
change later. If there was ever anything he could do, to let him know.
Kate locked that letter in her trunk. She wondered as she did so why
both of them seemed to think she would need them in the future. She
felt perfectly able to take care of herself.

Monday morning George carried Kate's books to school for her, saw that
she was started on her work in good shape, then went home, put on his
old clothes, and began the fall work at Aunt Ollie's. Kate, wearing her
prettiest blue dress, forgot even the dull ache in her heart, as she
threw herself into the business of educating those young people. She
worked as she never had before. She seemed to have developed fresh
patience, new perception, keener penetration; she made the dullest of
them see her points, and interested the most inattentive. She went
home to dinner feeling better. She decided to keep on teaching a few
years until George was well started in his practice; if he ever got
started. He was very slow in action it seemed to her, compared with
his enthusiasm when he talked.

CHAPTER XIV

STARTING MARRIED LIFE

FOR two weeks Kate threw herself into the business of teaching with all
her power. She succeeded in so interesting herself and her pupils that
she was convinced she had