"You'll have to talk to me on the road," said Kate. "I am
forbidden the house which also means the grounds, I suppose."
She walked across the road, set the telescope on the grass under a
big elm tree, and sat down beside it.
"I find I am rather tired," she said. "Will you share the sofa
with me?"
Nancy Ellen lifted her pink skirt and sat beside Kate. Robert
Gray stood looking down at them.
"What in the world is the matter?" asked Nancy Ellen.
"You know, of course, that Father signed a contract for me to
teach the home school this winter," explained Kate. "Well, I am
of age, and he had no authority from me, so his contract isn't
legal. None of you would lift a finger to help me get away to
Normal, how was I to know that you would take any interest in
finding me a school while I was gone? I thought it was all up to
me, so I applied for the school in Walden, got it, and signed the
contract to teach it. It is a better school, at higher wages. I
thought you would teach here -- I can't break my contract. Father
is furious and has ordered me out of the house. So there you are,
or rather here I am."
"Well, it isn't much of a joke," said Nancy Ellen, thinking
intently.
What she might have said had they been alone, Kate always
wondered. What she did say while her betrothed looked at her with
indignant eyes was possibly another matter. It proved to be
merely: "Oh, Kate, I am so sorry!"
"So am I," said Kate. "If I had known what your plans were, of
course I should gladly have helped you out. If only you had
written me and told me."
"I wanted to surprise you," said Nancy Ellen.
"You have," said Kate. "Enough to last a lifetime. I don't see
how you figured. You knew how late it was. You knew it would be
nip and tuck if I got a school at all."
"Of course we did! We thought you couldn't possibly get one, this
late, so we fixed up the scheme to let you have my school, and let
me sew on my linen this winter. We thought you would be as
pleased as we were."
"I am too sorry for words," said Kate. "If I had known your plan,
I would have followed it, even though I gave up a better school at
a higher salary. But I didn't know. I thought I had to paddle my
own canoe, so I made my own plans. Now I must live up to them,
because my contract is legal, while Father's is not. I would have
taught the school for you, in the circumstances, but since I
can't, so far as I am concerned, the arrangement I have made is
much better. The thing that really hurts the worst, aside from
disappointing you, is that Father says I was not honest in what I
did."