第66章

Charley had been out in California all winter. She'd been real melancholy in the fall--religious melancholy--it ran in her family. Her father worried so much over believing that he had committed the unpardonable sin that he died in the asylum. So when Rose Douglas got that way Charley packed her off to visit her sister in Los Angeles. She got perfectly well and came home just when the Fiske revival was in full swing. She stepped off the train at the Glen, real smiling and chipper, and the first thing she saw staring her in the face on the black, gable-end of the freight shed, was the question, in big white letters, two feet high, `Whither goest thou--to heaven or hell?'

That had been one of Fiske's ideas, and he had got Henry Hammond to paint it. Rose just gave a shriek and fainted; and when they got her home she was worse than ever. Charley Douglas went to Mr. Leavitt and told him that every Douglas would leave the church if Fiske was kept there any longer. Mr. Leavitt had to give in, for the Douglases paid half his salary, so Fiske departed, and we had to depend on our Bibles once more for instructions on how to get to heaven. After he was gone Mr. Leavitt found out he was just a masquerading Methodist, and he felt pretty sick, believe ME. Mr.

Leavitt fell short in some ways, but he was a good, sound Presbyterian.""By the way, I had a letter from Mr. Ford yesterday,"said Anne. "He asked me to remember him kindly to you.""I don't want his remembrances," said Miss Cornelia, curtly.

"Why?" said Anne, in astonishment. "I thought you liked him.""Well, so I did, in a kind of way. But I'll never forgive him for what he done to Leslie. There's that poor child eating her heart out about him--as if she hadn't had trouble enough--and him ranting round Toronto, I've no doubt, enjoying himself same as ever.

Just like a man."

"Oh, Miss Cornelia, how did you find out?""Lord, Anne, dearie, I've got eyes, haven't I? And I've known Leslie since she was a baby . There's been a new kind of heartbreak in her eyes all the fall, and I know that writer-man was behind it somehow. I'll never forgive myself for being the means of bringing him here. But I never expected he'd be like he was. Ithought he'd just be like the other men Leslie had boarded--conceited young asses, every one of them, that she never had any use for. One of them did try to flirt with her once and she froze him out--so bad, Ifeel sure he's never got himself thawed since. So Inever thought of any danger."

"Don't let Leslie suspect you know her secret," said Anne hurriedly. "I think it would hurt her.""Trust me, Anne, dearie. _I_ wasn't born yesterday.

Oh, a plague on all the men! One of them ruined Leslie's life to begin with, and now another of the tribe comes and makes her still more wretched. Anne, this world is an awful place, believe me.""There's something in the world amiss Will be unriddled by and by,"quoted Anne dreamily.

"If it is, it'll be in a world where there aren't any men," said Miss Cornelia gloomily.

"What have the men been doing now?" asked Gilbert, entering.

"Mischief--mischief! What else did they ever do?""It was Eve ate the apple, Miss Cornelia."" 'Twas a he-creature tempted her," retorted Miss Cornelia triumphantly.