"Of course he wouldn't. He knew what he was about. He was not green
enough to marry Grandpa Markham's daughter; and if she didn't look
out, she'd get herself into a pretty scrape. It didn't look well,
anyhow, for her to be putting on airs, as she had done ever since big
folks took her up, and she guessed she wouldn't be beholden to nobody
for her larnin'."
All this and much more was discussed, and by the time the patchwork
thing was done, there remained but little to be said either for or
against Guy Remington and Maddy Clyde which had not been said by
either friend or foe.
Among the invited guests at that quilting was the wife of Farmer
Green, Maddy's warmest friend in Honedale, and the one who did her
best to defend her against the attacks of those whose remarks she well
knew were caused more by envy than any personal dislike to Maddy, who
used to be so much of a pet until her superior advantages separated
her in a measure from them. Good Mrs. Green was sorely tried. Without
in the least blaming Maddy, she, too, had been troubled at the
frequency of Guy's Visits to the cottage. It was not friendship alone
which took him there, she was sure; and knowing that he was engaged,
she feared for Maddy's happiness at first, and afterward, when people
began to talk, she feared for her good name. Something must be done,
and though she dreaded it greatly, she was the one to do it.
Accordingly, next day she started for the cottage, which Guy had just
left, and this, in her opinion, accounted for the bright color in
Maddy's cheek and the sparkle in her eye. Guy had been there, bringing
and leaving a world of sunshine, but, alas, his chances for coming
ever again as he had done were fearfully small, when, at the close of
Mrs. Green's well-meant visit, Maddy lay on her bed, her white,
frightened face buried in the pillows, and herself half wishing she
had died before the last hour had come, with the terrible awakening it
had brought; awakening to the fact that of all living beings, Guy
Remington was the one she loved the best--the one without whose
presence it seemed to her she could not live, but without which she
now knew she must.
With the best of intentions Mrs. Green had made a bungle of the whole
affair, but had succeeded in giving Maddy a general impression that
folks were talking awfully about Guy's coming there, and doing for her
so much like an accepted lover, when everybody knew he was engaged,
and wouldn't be likely to marry a poor girl if he wasn't; that unless
she wanted to be ruined teetotally, and lose all her friends, she must
contrive to stop his visits, and not see him so much.