Jane seldom saw him smile and
never heard him sing and she feared that he often shirked her company.
One hot morning at the end of August she had a shock. He had taken his
breakfast before she came down and he had left her no note of greeting
or explanation. She ran to a window that overlooked the main avenue and
she could see him walking slowly towards the principal entrance. Her
first instinct was to follow him--to send the house man to delay him--to
bring him back by some or any means. Once she could and would have done
so, but she did not feel it wise or possible then. What had happened?
She went slowly back to her breakfast, but there was a little ball in
her throat--she could not swallow--the grief and fear in her heart was
surging upward and choking her.
All that her mother-in-law had said came back to her memory. Had John
taken that one step away? Would he never take it back to her? She was
overwhelmed with a climbing sorrow that would not down. Yet she asked
with assumed indifference,
"Was the Master well this morning?"
"It's likely, ma'am.
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