Part 32 (1/2)

When prayer-meeting was over this man came up to Janet and said,

”May I see you home, Janet?”

Janet took his arm--”as primly and shyly as if she were no more than sixteen, having her first escort home,” Anne told the girls at Patty's Place later on.

”Miss s.h.i.+rley, permit me to introduce Mr. Douglas,” she said stiffly.

Mr. Douglas nodded and said, ”I was looking at you in prayer-meeting, miss, and thinking what a nice little girl you were.”

Such a speech from ninety-nine people out of a hundred would have annoyed Anne bitterly; but the way in which Mr. Douglas said it made her feel that she had received a very real and pleasing compliment.

She smiled appreciatively at him and dropped obligingly behind on the moonlit road.

So Janet had a beau! Anne was delighted. Janet would make a paragon of a wife--cheery, economical, tolerant, and a very queen of cooks. It would be a flagrant waste on Nature's part to keep her a permanent old maid.

”John Douglas asked me to take you up to see his mother,” said Janet the next day. ”She's bed-rid a lot of the time and never goes out of the house. But she's powerful fond of company and always wants to see my boarders. Can you go up this evening?”

Anne a.s.sented; but later in the day Mr. Douglas called on his mother's behalf to invite them up to tea on Sat.u.r.day evening.

”Oh, why didn't you put on your pretty pansy dress?” asked Anne, when they left home. It was a hot day, and poor Janet, between her excitement and her heavy black cashmere dress, looked as if she were being broiled alive.

”Old Mrs. Douglas would think it terrible frivolous and unsuitable, I'm afraid. John likes that dress, though,” she added wistfully.

The old Douglas homestead was half a mile from ”Wayside” cresting a windy hill. The house itself was large and comfortable, old enough to be dignified, and girdled with maple groves and orchards. There were big, trim barns behind it, and everything bespoke prosperity. Whatever the patient endurance in Mr. Douglas' face had meant it hadn't, so Anne reflected, meant debts and duns.

John Douglas met them at the door and took them into the sitting-room, where his mother was enthroned in an armchair.

Anne had expected old Mrs. Douglas to be tall and thin, because Mr.

Douglas was. Instead, she was a tiny sc.r.a.p of a woman, with soft pink cheeks, mild blue eyes, and a mouth like a baby's. Dressed in a beautiful, fas.h.i.+onably-made black silk dress, with a fluffy white shawl over her shoulders, and her snowy hair surmounted by a dainty lace cap, she might have posed as a grandmother doll.

”How do you do, Janet dear?” she said sweetly. ”I am so glad to see you again, dear.” She put up her pretty old face to be kissed. ”And this is our new teacher. I'm delighted to meet you. My son has been singing your praises until I'm half jealous, and I'm sure Janet ought to be wholly so.”

Poor Janet blushed, Anne said something polite and conventional, and then everybody sat down and made talk. It was hard work, even for Anne, for n.o.body seemed at ease except old Mrs. Douglas, who certainly did not find any difficulty in talking. She made Janet sit by her and stroked her hand occasionally. Janet sat and smiled, looking horribly uncomfortable in her hideous dress, and John Douglas sat without smiling.

At the tea table Mrs. Douglas gracefully asked Janet to pour the tea.

Janet turned redder than ever but did it. Anne wrote a description of that meal to Stella.

”We had cold tongue and chicken and strawberry preserves, lemon pie and tarts and chocolate cake and raisin cookies and pound cake and fruit cake--and a few other things, including more pie--caramel pie, I think it was. After I had eaten twice as much as was good for me, Mrs. Douglas sighed and said she feared she had nothing to tempt my appet.i.te.

”'I'm afraid dear Janet's cooking has spoiled you for any other,' she said sweetly. 'Of course n.o.body in Valley Road aspires to rival HER.

WON'T you have another piece of pie, Miss s.h.i.+rley? You haven't eaten ANYTHING.'

”Stella, I had eaten a helping of tongue and one of chicken, three biscuits, a generous allowance of preserves, a piece of pie, a tart, and a square of chocolate cake!”

After tea Mrs. Douglas smiled benevolently and told John to take ”dear Janet” out into the garden and get her some roses. ”Miss s.h.i.+rley will keep me company while you are out--won't you?” she said plaintively. She settled down in her armchair with a sigh.

”I am a very frail old woman, Miss s.h.i.+rley. For over twenty years I've been a great sufferer. For twenty long, weary years I've been dying by inches.”

”How painful!” said Anne, trying to be sympathetic and succeeding only in feeling idiotic.