Chapter 19

The roll of plans stuck out from his coat pocket. That was all Amarita could see. She laid hands upon him and drew him into the entry. There she shut the door and then stood with her grasp upon the other door, leading into the sitting-room, and held it tight. She was afraid mother Meade might come out to see what was the matter. Amarita leaned against the casing. In spite of the brightness of her eyes, she looked faint and sick. It seemed to be her grasp upon the latch that kept her now from falling.

"O Elihu!" she said. He was questioning her with puzzled eyes. "O Elihu! I've been awful mean to you." Her hold on the latch relaxed, and she sat down on the packing-case between them. "When I told you about the box the man left, and you seemed to think I didn't know enough to come in when it rained, I said next time you made any kind of a mistake I'd let it go, no matter who's goin' to laugh at you. And when it come to your plans"--she stopped here, and Elihu absently put his hand to the roll in his pocket--"when it come to them, I said you might show 'em to the minister and the doctor and everybody else. But, Elihu, there ain't--O Elihu, you ain't put a single closet in that house!"

Elihu stood there in silence, and Amarita sat on the packing-case, feeling her heart beat. It seemed a long time before she heard his voice.

"There! there!" he was saying. "You open that door and I'll look in an' see if the chimbley's ketched."

In a moment Amarita followed him. She heard mother Meade moving about the kitchen, and Elihu was just dropping his roll of paper on the fire. She gave a little cry, but he only said, in what seemed to her a very kind voice, almost the voice of courting days,--

"You run out and fetch me in the hammer and screw-driver, whilst I listen to this chimbley."

When she came droopingly back with the tools, Elihu was explicitly cheerful.

"There!" he said. "That's safe enough. We'll burn it out, come wet weather." Then he strode into the hall, and she heard two or three blows and the splintering of soft wood. "Here's your books," Elihu was calling to her. "You two take 'em out, and if 'tain't too late after I come home, I'll read a page. I guess we can foot the bill when it comes in."

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Books by Alice Brown

COUNTRY NEIGHBORS. 12mo, $1.20, _net_. Postage extra.

THE STORY OF THYRZA. With frontispiece. Large square crown 8vo, $1.35, _net_. Postpaid, $1.50.

ROSE MACLEOD. With frontispiece. Crown 8vo, $1.50.

THE COUNTY ROAD. 12mo, $1.50.

THE COURT OF LOVE. 12mo, $1.25.

PARADISE. 12mo, $1.50.

HIGH NOON. 12mo, $1.50.

THE MANNERINGS. Crown 8vo, $1.50.

MARGARET WARRENER. 12mo, $1.50.

KING'S END. 12mo, $1.50.

MEADOW GRASS. Tales of New England Life. 16mo, $1.50; paper, 50 cents.

TIVERTON TALES. 12mo, $1.50.

BY OAK AND THORN. A Record of English Days. 16mo, $1.25.

THE DAY OF HIS YOUTH. 16mo, $1.00.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK

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The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS U. S. A