"My feelings on the subject can be of no interest to you," she answered
with chilling decision.
"All right," and he went to the hat-rack to get his muffler and cap,
preparatory to again facing the storm.
The snow had been falling steadily all day. Drifting almost to the
height of the kitchen window, it whirled about the house and beat
against the window panes with a muffled sound that was inexpressibly
dreary to the girl, who felt herself the center of all this pitiful
human contention.
"David, David; where have you been all day, and where are you going
now?" His mother looked at his gray, haggard face and tried to guess
his hidden trouble, the first he had ever kept from her.
"Mother, I am not a child, and you can't expect me to hang about the
stove like a cat, all my life." It was his first harsh word to her and
she shrank before it as if it had been a blow. David, her boy, to
speak to her like that! She turned quickly away to hide the tears, the
first she had ever shed on his account.
"Here, Anna," she said, struggling to recover her composure, "take this
bucket and get it filled for me, please."
The girl reached for her cloak that hung on a peg near the door.
"No, Anna, you shall not go out for water a night like this; it's not
the work for you to do." David had sprung forward and caught the
bucket from her hand and plunged with it into the storm. Kate's quick
eyes caught the expression of David's face--while Mrs. Bartlett only
heard his words. She gave Anna a searching look as she said: "So it is
you whom David loves." At last Kate understood the secret of Anna's
distracted face--and at last the mother understood the secret of her
boy's moodiness--he loved Anna. And her heart was filled with
bitterness and anger at the very thought; she had taken her boy, this
stranger, with whom the tongue of scandal was busy. The kindly,
gentle, old face lost all its sweetness; jealous anger filled it with
ugly lines. Turning to Anna she said: "It would have been better for all of us if we had not taken you in
that day to break up our home with your mischief."
Anna was cut to the quick. "Oh, Mrs. Bartlett, please do not say that;
I will go away as soon as you like, but it is not with my consent that
David has these foolish fancies about me."