If she should
hear of it! What should I do? I went first of all to the lawyer's
office: he was out of town for the day. I wandered up and down the
streets for an hour. Then I went back to the bank. There I found a
telegram from Doctor Quimby: "Mrs. Paine very ill. Come on first train."
I knew what it meant. Mother had heard the news; the shock which the
doctor dreaded had had its effect.

I reached Denboro the next morning. Lute met me at the station. From his
disjointed and lengthy story I gathered that Mother had been "feelin'
fust-rate for her" until the noon before. "I come back from the
post-office," said Lute, "and I was cal'latin' to read the newspaper,
but Dorindy had some everlastin' chore or other for me to do--I believe
she thinks 'em up in her sleep--and I left the paper on the dinin'-room
table and went out to the barn. Dorindy she come along to boss me, as
usual. When we went back to the house there was Mrs. Comfort on the
dinin'-room floor--dead, we was afraid at fust. The paper was alongside
of her, so we judge she was just a-goin' to read it when she was took.
The doctor says it's a paralysis or appleplexy or somethin'. We carried
her into the bedroom, but she ain't spoke sence."

She did not speak for weeks and when she did it was to ask for me.
She called my name over and over again and, if I left her, even for a
moment, she grew so much worse that the doctor forbade my going back to
the city. I obtained a leave of absence from the bank for three months.
By that time she was herself, so far as her reason was concerned, but
very weak and unable to bear the least hint of disturbance or worry. She
must not be moved, so Doctor Quimby said, and he held out no immediate
hope of her recovering the use of her limbs. "She will be confined to
her bed for a long time," said the doctor, "and she is easy only when
you are here. If you should go away I am afraid she might die." I did
not go away. I gave up my position in the bank and remained in Denboro.

At the end of the year I bought the Rogers house and land, moved a
portion of our furniture down there, sold the rest, and resigned myself
to a period of idleness in the country. Dorinda I hired as housekeeper,
and when Dorinda accepted the engagement she threw in Lute, so to speak,
for good measure.

And here I have been ever since. At first I looked upon my stay in
Denboro as a sort of enforced vacation, which was to be, of course, only
temporary. But time w