She let Mrs. Bolton go to the door, and she did not rise to meet the
doctor; she saw from his smile that he knew he had a moral rather than a
physical trouble to deal with, but she did not relax the severity of her
glare in sympathy, as she was tempted from some infinite remoteness to do.
When he said, "You're not well," she whispered solemnly back, "Not at all."
He did not pursue his inquiry into her condition, but said, with an
irrelevant cheerfulness that piqued her, "I was coming here this evening
at any rate, and I got your message on the way up from my office."
"You are very kind," she said, a little more audibly.
"I wanted to tell you," he went on, "of what a time Putney and I have had
to-day working up public sentiment for Mr. Peck, so as to keep him here."
Annie did not change her position, but the expression of her glance
changed.
"We've been round in the enemy's camp, everywhere; and I've committed
Gerrish himself to an armed neutrality. That wasn't difficult. The
difficulty was in another quarter--with Mr. Peck himself. He's more opposed
than any one else to his stay in Hatboro'. You know he intended going away
this morning?"
"Did he?" Annie asked dishonestly. The question obliged her to say
something.
"Yes. He came to Putney before breakfast to thank him and take leave of
him, and to tell him of the plan he had for--Imagine what!"
"I don't know," said Annie, hoarsely, after an effort, as if the untruth
would not come easily. "I am worse than Mrs. Munger," she thought.
"For going to Fall River to teach school among the mill-hands' children!
And to open a night-school for the hands themselves."
The doctor waited for her sensation, and in its absence he looked so
disappointed that she was forced to say, "To teach school?"
Then he went on briskly again. "Yes. Putney laboured with him on his knees,
so to speak, and got him to postpone his going till to-morrow morning; and
then he came to me for help. We enlisted Mrs. Wilmington in the cause, and
we've spent the day working up the Peck sentiment to a fever-heat. It's
been a very queer campaign; three Gentiles toiling for a saint against
the elect, and bringing them all over at last. We've got a paper, signed
by a large majority of the members of the church--the church, not the
society--asking Mr. Peck to remain; and Putney's gone to him with the
paper, and he's coming round here to report Mr. Peck's decision. We all
agreed that it wouldn't do to say anything about his plan for the future,
and I fancy some of his people signed our petition under the impression
that they were keeping a valuable man out of another pulpit."