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Read books online Ā» Fiction Ā» Further Chronicles of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery (best books to read for teens txt) šŸ“–

Book online Ā«Further Chronicles of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery (best books to read for teens txt) šŸ“–Ā». Author Lucy Maud Montgomery



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do. He sent her those presentsā€”lookā€”and this letter. Read it. She has gone to coax him to come and see her married. She was crazy about it. And the minister is here and it is half-past seven. Sheā€™ll ruin her dress and shoes in the dust and dew. And what if some one has seen her! Was there ever such a little fool?ā€

Frankā€™s presence of mind had returned to him. He knew all about Rachel and her father. She had told him everything.

ā€œIā€™ll go after her,ā€ he said gently. ā€œGet me my hat and coat. Iā€™ll slip down the back stairs and over to the Cove.ā€

ā€œYou must get out of the pantry window, then,ā€ said Mrs. Spencer firmly, mingling comedy and tragedy after her characteristic fashion. ā€œThe kitchen is full of women. I wonā€™t have this known and talked about if it can possibly be helped.ā€

The bridegroom, wise beyond his years in the knowledge that it was well to yield to women in little things, crawled obediently out of the pantry window and darted through the birch wood. Mrs. Spencer had stood quakingly on guard until he had disappeared.

So Rachel had gone to her father! Like had broken the fetters of years and fled to like.

ā€œIt isnā€™t much use fighting against nature, I guess,ā€ she thought grimly. ā€œIā€™m beat. He must have thought something of her, after all, when he sent her that teapot and letter. And what does he mean about the ā€˜day they had such a good timeā€™? Well, it just means that sheā€™s been to see him before, sometime, I suppose, and kept me in ignorance of it all.ā€

Mrs. Spencer shut down the pantry window with a vicious thud.

ā€œIf only sheā€™ll come quietly back with Frank in time to prevent gossip Iā€™ll forgive her,ā€ she said, as she turned to the kitchen.

Rachel was sitting on her fatherā€™s knee, with both her white arms around his neck, when Frank came in. She sprang up, her face flushed and appealing, her eyes bright and dewy with tears. Frank thought he had never seen her look so lovely.

ā€œOh, Frank, is it very late? Oh, are you angry?ā€ she exclaimed timidly.

ā€œNo, no, dear. Of course Iā€™m not angry. But donā€™t you think youā€™d better come back now? Itā€™s nearly eight and everybody is waiting.ā€

ā€œIā€™ve been trying to coax father to come up and see me married,ā€ said Rachel. ā€œHelp me, Frank.ā€

ā€œYouā€™d better come, sir,ā€ said Frank, heartily, ā€œIā€™d like it as much as Rachel would.ā€

David Spencer shook his head stubbornly.

ā€œNo, I canā€™t go to that house. I was locked out of it. Never mind me. Iā€™ve had my happiness in this half hour with my little girl. Iā€™d like to see her married, but it isnā€™t to be.ā€

ā€œYes, it is to beā€”it shall be,ā€ said Rachel resolutely. ā€œYou SHALL see me married. Frank, Iā€™m going to be married here in my fatherā€™s house! That is the right place for a girl to be married. Go back and tell the guests so, and bring them all down.ā€

Frank looked rather dismayed. David Spencer said deprecatingly: ā€œLittle girl, donā€™t you think it would beā€”ā€

ā€œIā€™m going to have my own way in this,ā€ said Rachel, with a sort of tender finality. ā€œGo, Frank. Iā€™ll obey you all my life after, but you must do this for me. Try to understand,ā€ she added beseechingly.

ā€œOh, I understand,ā€ Frank reassured her. ā€œBesides, I think you are right. But I was thinking of your mother. She wonā€™t come.ā€

ā€œThen you tell her that if she doesnā€™t come I shanā€™t be married at all,ā€ said Rachel. She was betraying unsuspected ability to manage people. She knew that ultimatum would urge Frank to his best endeavors.

Frank, much to Mrs. Spencerā€™s dismay, marched boldly in at the front door upon his return. She pounced on him and whisked him out of sight into the supper room.

ā€œWhereā€™s Rachel? What made you come that way? Everybody saw you!ā€

ā€œIt makes no difference. They will all have to know, anyway. Rachel says she is going to be married from her fatherā€™s house, or not at all. Iā€™ve come back to tell you so.ā€

Isabellaā€™s face turned crimson.

ā€œRachel has gone crazy. I wash my hands of this affair. Do as you please. Take the guestsā€”the supper, too, if you can carry it.ā€

ā€œWeā€™ll all come back here for supper,ā€ said Frank, ignoring the sarcasm. ā€œCome, Mrs. Spencer, letā€™s make the best of it.ā€

ā€œDo you suppose that I am going to David Spencerā€™s house?ā€ said Isabella Spencer violently.

ā€œOh you MUST come, Mrs. Spencer,ā€ cried poor Frank desperately. He began to fear that he would lose his bride past all finding in this maze of triple stubbornness. ā€œRachel says she wonā€™t be married at all if you donā€™t go, too. Think what a talk it will make. You know she will keep her word.ā€

Isabella Spencer knew it. Amid all the conflict of anger and revolt in her soul was a strong desire not to make a worse scandal than must of necessity be made. The desire subdued and tamed her, as nothing else could have done.

ā€œI will go, since I have to,ā€ she said icily. ā€œWhat canā€™t be cured must be endured. Go and tell them.ā€

Five minutes later the sixty wedding guests were all walking over the fields to the Cove, with the minister and the bridegroom in the front of the procession. They were too amazed even to talk about the strange happening. Isabella Spencer walked behind, fiercely alone.

They all crowded into the little room of the house at the Cove, and a solemn hush fell over it, broken only by the purr of the sea-wind around it and the croon of the waves on the shore. David Spencer gave his daughter away; but, when the ceremony was concluded, Isabella was the first to take the girl in her arms. She clasped her and kissed her, with tears streaming down her pale face, all her nature melted in a motherā€™s tenderness.

ā€œRachel! Rachel! My child, I hope and pray that you may be happy,ā€ she said brokenly.

In the surge of the suddenly merry crowd of well-wishers around the bride and groom, Isabella was pushed back into a shadowy corner behind a heap of sails and ropes. Looking up, she found herself crushed against David Spencer. For the first time in twenty years the eyes of husband and wife met. A strange thrill shot to Isabellaā€™s heart; she felt herself trembling.

ā€œIsabella.ā€ It was Davidā€™s voice in her earā€”a voice full of tenderness and pleadingā€”the voice of the young wooer of her girlhoodā€”ā€œIs it too late to ask you to forgive me? Iā€™ve been a stubborn foolā€”but there hasnā€™t been an hour in all these years that I havenā€™t thought about you and our baby and longed for you.ā€

Isabella Spencer had hated this man; yet her hate had been but a parasite growth on a nobler stem, with no abiding roots of its own. It withered under his words, and lo, there was the old love, fair and strong and beautiful as ever.

ā€œOhā€”Davidā€”Iā€”wasā€”allā€”toā€”blame,ā€ she murmured brokenly.

Further words were lost on her husbandā€™s lips.

When the hubbub of handshaking and congratulating had subsided, Isabella Spencer stepped out before the company. She looked almost girlish and bridal herself, with her flushed cheeks and bright eyes.

ā€œLetā€™s go back now and have supper, and be sensible,ā€ she said crisply. ā€œRachel, your father is coming, too. He is coming to STAY,ā€ā€”with a defiant glance around the circle. ā€œCome, everybody.ā€

They went back with laughter and raillery over the quiet autumn fields, faintly silvered now by the moon that was rising over the hills. The young bride and groom lagged behind; they were very happy, but they were not so happy, after all, as the old bride and groom who walked swiftly in front. Isabellaā€™s hand was in her husbandā€™s and sometimes she could not see the moonlit hills for a mist of glorified tears.

ā€œDavid,ā€ she whispered, as he helped her over the fence, ā€œhow can you ever forgive me?ā€

ā€œThereā€™s nothing to forgive,ā€ he said. ā€œWeā€™re only just married. Who ever heard of a bridegroom talking of forgiveness? Everything is beginning over new for us, my girl.ā€

 

IV. JANEā€™S BABY

Miss Rosetta Ellis, with her front hair in curl-papers, and her back hair bound with a checked apron, was out in her breezy side yard under the firs, shaking her parlor rugs, when Mr. Nathan Patterson drove in. Miss Rosetta had seen him coming down the long red hill, but she had not supposed he would be calling at that time of the morning. So she had not run. Miss Rosetta always ran if anybody called and her front hair was in curl-papers; and, though the errand of the said caller might be life or death, he or she had to wait until Miss Rosetta had taken her hair out. Everybody in Avonlea knew this, because everybody in Avonlea knew everything about everybody else.

But Mr. Patterson had wheeled into the lane so quickly and unexpectedly that Miss Rosetta had had no time to run; so, twitching off the checked apron, she stood her ground as calmly as might be under the disagreeable consciousness of curl-papers.

ā€œGood morning, Miss Ellis,ā€ said Mr. Patterson, so somberly that Miss Rosetta instantly felt that he was the bearer of bad news. Usually Mr. Pattersonā€™s face was as broad and beaming as a harvest moon. Now his expression was very melancholy and his voice positively sepulchral.

ā€œGood morning,ā€ returned Miss Rosetta, crisply and cheerfully. She, at any rate, would not go into eclipse until she knew the reason therefor. ā€œIt is a fine day.ā€

ā€œA very fine day,ā€ assented Mr. Patterson, solemnly. ā€œI have just come from the Wheeler place, Miss Ellis, and I regret to sayā€”ā€

ā€œCharlotte is sick!ā€ cried Miss Rosetta, rapidly. ā€œCharlotte has got another spell with her heart! I knew it! Iā€™ve been expecting to hear it! Any woman that drives about the country as much as she does is liable to heart disease at any moment. I never go outside of my gate but I meet her gadding off somewhere. Goodness knows who looks after her place. I shouldnā€™t like to trust as much to a hired man as she does. Well, it is very kind of you, Mr. Patterson, to put yourself out to the extent of calling to tell me that Charlotte is sick, but I donā€™t really see why you should take so much troubleā€”I really donā€™t. It doesnā€™t matter to me whether Charlotte is sick or whether she isnā€™t. YOU know that perfectly well, Mr. Patterson, if anybody does. When Charlotte went and got married, on the sly, to that good-for-nothing Jacob Wheelerā€”ā€

ā€œMrs. Wheeler is quite well,ā€ interrupted Mr. Patterson desperately. ā€œQuite well. Nothing at all the matter with her, in fact. I onlyā€”ā€

ā€œThen what do you mean by coming here and telling me she wasnā€™t, and frightening me half to death?ā€ demanded Miss Rosetta, indignantly. ā€œMy own heart isnā€™t very strongā€”it runs in our familyā€”and my doctor warned me to avoid all shocks and excitement. I donā€™t want to be excited, Mr. Patterson. I wonā€™t be excited, not even if Charlotte has another spell. Itā€™s perfectly useless for you to try to excite me, Mr. Patterson.ā€

ā€œBless the woman, Iā€™m not trying to excite anybody!ā€ declared Mr. Patterson in exasperation. ā€œI merely called to tell youā€”ā€

ā€œTo tell me WHAT?ā€ said Miss Rosetta. ā€œHow much longer do you mean to keep me in suspense, Mr. Patterson. No doubt you have abundance of spare time, butā€”Iā€”have NOT.ā€

ā€œā€”that your sister, Mrs. Wheeler, has had a letter from a cousin of yours, and sheā€™s in Charlottetown. Mrs. Roberts, I think her name isā€”ā€

ā€œJane Roberts,ā€ broke in Miss Rosetta. ā€œJane

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