Anne and Leslie bowed as those receiving a benediction. Gilbert suddenly brushed his hand over his eyes; Owen Ford was rapt as one who can see visions. All were silent for a space. The little house of dreams added another poignant and unforgettable moment to its store of memories.
"I must be going now," said Captain Jim slowly at last. He took up his hat and looked lingeringly about the room.
"Good night, all of you," he said, as he went out.
Anne, pierced by the unusual wistfulness of his farewell, ran to the door after him.
"Come back soon, Captain Jim," she called, as he passed through the little gate hung between the firs.
"Ay, ay," he called cheerily back to her. But Captain Jim had sat by the old fireside of the house of dreams for the last time.
Anne went slowly back to the others.
"It's so--so pitiful to think of him going all alone down to that lonely Point," she said. "And there is no one to welcome him there.""Captain Jim is such good company for others that one can't imagine him being anything but good company for himself," said Owen. "But he must often be lonely.
There was a touch of the seer about him tonight--he spoke as one to whom it had been given to speak. Well, I must be going, too."Anne and Gilbert discreetly melted away; but when Owen had gone Anne returned, to find Leslie standing by the hearth.
"Oh, Leslie--I know--and I'm so glad, dear," she said, putting her arms about her.
"Anne, my happiness frightens me," whispered Leslie.
"It seems too great to be real--I'm afraid to speak of it--to think of it. It seems to me that it must just be another dream of this house of dreams and it will vanish when I leave here.""Well, you are not going to leave here--until Owen takes you. You are going to stay with me until that times comes. Do you think I'd let you go over to that lonely, sad place again?""Thank you, dear. I meant to ask you if I might stay with you. I didn't want to go back there--it would seem like going back into the chill and dreariness of the old life again. Anne, Anne, what a friend you've been to me--`a good, sweet woman--true and faithful and to be depended on'--Captain Jim summed you up.""He said `women,' not `woman,'" smiled Anne. "Perhaps Captain Jim sees us both through the rose-colored spectacles of his love for us. But we can try to live up to his belief in us, at least.""Do you remember, Anne," said Leslie slowly, "that Ionce said--that night we met on the shore--that I hated my good looks? I did--then. It always seemed to me that if I had been homely Dick would never have thought of me. I hated my beauty because it had attracted him, but now--oh, I'm glad that I have it. It's all I have to offer Owen,--his artist soul delights in it. I feel as if I do not come to him quite empty-handed.""Owen loves your beauty, Leslie. Who would not? But it's foolish of you to say or think that that is all you bring him. HE will tell you that--I needn't. And now I must lock up. I expected Susan back tonight, but she has not come.""Oh, yes, here I am, Mrs. Doctor, dear," said Susan, entering unexpectedly from the kitchen, "and puffing like a hen drawing rails at that! It's quite a walk from the Glen down here.""I'm glad to see you back, Susan. How is your sister?""She is able to sit up, but of course she cannot walk yet. However, she is very well able to get on without me now, for her daughter has come home for her vacation. And I am thankful to be back, Mrs. Doctor, dear. Matilda's leg was broken and no mistake, but her tongue was not. She would talk the legs off an iron pot, that she would, Mrs. Doctor, dear, though I grieve to say it of my own sister. She was always a great talker and yet she was the first of our family to get married. She really did not care much about marrying James Clow, but she could not bear to disoblige him.
Not but what James is a good man--the only fault I have to find with him is that he always starts in to say grace with such an unearthly groan, Mrs. Doctor, dear.
It always frightens my appetite clear away. And speaking of getting married, Mrs. Doctor, dear, is it true that Cornelia Bryant is going to be married to Marshall Elliott?""Yes, quite true, Susan."
"Well, Mrs. Doctor, dear, it does NOT seem to me fair.
Here is me, who never said a word against the men, and I cannot get married nohow. And there is Cornelia Bryant, who is never done abusing them, and all she has to do is to reach out her hand and pick one up, as it were. It is a very strange world, Mrs. Doctor, dear.""There's another world, you know, Susan.""Yes," said Susan with a heavy sigh, "but, Mrs.
Doctor, dear, there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage there."
