"No, I couldn't," said Kate.
"Who came after you?" asked Mrs. Holt.
"Dr. Gray," answered Kate.
"That new doctor at Hartley? Why, be you an' him friends?"
Mrs. Holt had followed down the hall, eagerly waiting in the
doorway. Kate glanced at her and felt sudden pity. The woman was
warped. Everything in her life had gone wrong. Possibly she
could not avoid being the disagreeable person she was. Kate
smiled at her.
"Worse than that," she said. "We be relations in a few days.
He's going to marry my sister Nancy Ellen next Tuesday."
Kate understood the indistinct gurgle she heard to be approving,
so she added: "He came after me early so I could go to Hartley
and help get their new house ready for them to live in after the
ceremony."
"Did your father give them the house?" asked Mrs. Holt eagerly.
"No. Dr. Gray bought his home," said Kate.
"How nice! What did your father give them?"
Kate's patience was exhausted. "You'll have to wait until I come
back," she said. "I haven't the gift of telling about things
before they have happened."
Then she picked up her telescope and saying "good-bye," left the
house.
As they drove toward Hartley: "I'm anxious to see your house,"
said Kate. "Did you find one in a good neighbourhood?"
"The very best, I think," said the doctor. "That is all one could
offer Nancy Ellen."
"I'm so glad for her! And I'm glad for you, too! She'll make you
a beautiful wife in every way. She's a good cook, she knows how
to economize, and she's too pretty for words, if she IS my
sister."
"I heartily agree with you," said the doctor. "But I notice you
put the cook first and the beauty last."
"You will, too, before you get through with it," answered Kate.
"Here we are!" said he, soon after they entered Hartley. "I'll
drive around the block, so you can form an idea of the location."
Kate admired every house in the block, the streets and trees, the
one house Robert Gray had selected in every particular. They went
inside and built fires, had lunch together at the hotel, and then
Kate rolled up her sleeves and with a few yards of cheese-cloth
for a duster, began unwrapping furniture and standing it in the
room where it belonged. Robert moved the heavy pieces, then he
left to call on a patient and spend the evening with Nancy Ellen.
So Kate spent several happy days setting Nancy Ellen's new home in
order. From basement to garret she had it immaculate and shining.
No Bates girl, not even Agatha, ever had gone into a home having
so many comforts and conveniences.
Kate felt lonely the day she knew her home was overcrowded with
all their big family; she sat very still thinking of them during
the hour of the ceremony; she began preparing supper almost
immediately, because Robert had promised her that he would not eat
any more of the wedding feast than he could help, and he would
bring Nancy Ellen as soon afterward as possible. Kate saw them
drive to the gate and come up the walk together. As they entered
the door Nancy Ellen was saying: "Why, how does the house come to
be all lighted up? Seems to me I smell things to eat. Well, if
the table isn't all set!"