All this, and much more, Guy thought, as with Maddy's note in his hand
he walked up and down the sitting-room, raging like a young lion, and
threatening vengeance upon everybody. This was not the first
intimation Guy had received of the people's gossip, for only that
morning Mrs. Noah had hinted that his course was not at all calculated
to do Maddy any good, while Agnes had repeated to him some things
which she had heard touching the frequency of his visits to Honedale;
but these were nothing to the calmly worded message which banished him
effectually from Maddy's presence. He knew Maddy, and he knew, she
meant what she wrote, but he could not have it so. He must see her; he
would see her; and so for the next half hour Flora was the bearer of
written messages to and from Maddy's room; messages of earnest
entreaty on the one hand, and of firm denial on the other. At last
Maddy wrote: "If you care for me in the least, or for my respect, leave me, and do
not come again until I send for you. I am not insensible to your
kindness. I feel it all; but the world is nearer right than you
suppose. It does not look well for you to come here so much, and I
prefer that you should not. Justice to Lucy requires that you stay
away."
That ended it! That roused up Guy's pride, and writing back: "You shall be obeyed. Good-by." He sprang into his buggy, and Maddy,
listening, with head and heart throbbing alike, heard him as he drove
furiously away.
Those were long, dreary days which followed, and but for her
grandfather's increasing feebleness Maddy would almost have died.
Anxiety for him, however, kept her from dwelling too much upon
herself, but the excitement sad the care wore upon her sadly, robbing
her eye of its luster and her cheek of its remaining bloom, making
even Mrs. Noah cry when she came one day with Jessie to see how they
were getting on. She had heard from Guy of his banishment, and now
that he stayed away, she was ready to step in; so she came, laden with
sympathy and other more substantial comforts brought from the
Aikenside larder.
Maddy was glad to see her, and for a time cried softly on her bosom,
while Mrs. Noah's tears kept company with hers. Not a word was said of
Guy, except when Jessie told her he was gone to Boston, and it was so
stupid at home without him.
With more than her ordinary discretion, Flora kept to herself what had
passed when Guy was last there, so Mrs. Noah knew nothing except what
he had told her, and what she read in Maddy's white, suffering face.
This last was enough to excite all her pity, and she treated the young
girl with the most motherly kindness saying all night, and herself
taking care of grandpa, who was now too ill to sit up. There seemed to
be no disease preying upon him, nothing save old age, and the loss of
one who for more than forty years had shared all his joy and sorrow.
He could not live without her, and one night, three weeks after Guy's
dismissal, he said to Maddy, as she was about to leave him: "Sit with me, darling, for a little while, if you are not too tired.
Your grandmother seems near me to-night, and so does Alice, your
mother. Maybe I'll be with them before another day. I hope I may if
God is willing, and there's much I would say to you."