Maddy was glad of the racking headache, which kept her in her bed the
whole of the next day, glad of any excuse to stay away from the
family, talking--all but Mrs. Noah--of Guy, and what was transpiring
in England. They had failed to remember the difference in the
longitude of the two places; but Maddy forgot nothing, and when the
clock struck four, she called Mrs. Noah to her and whispered, faintly: "They were to be married at eight in the evening. Allowing for
possible delays, it's over before this and Guy is lost forever!"
Mrs. Noah had no consolation to offer, and only pressed the hot,
feverish hands, while Maddy turned her face to the wall, and did not
speak again, except to whisper, incoherently, as she half slumbered,
half woke: "Did Guy think of me when he promised to love her, and does he, can
he, see how miserable I am?" Maddy was indeed passing through deep
waters, and that night, the fourth of December, the longest, dreariest
she ever knew, could never be forgotten. Once past, the worst was
over, and as the rarest metal is purified by fire, so Maddy came from
the dreadful ordeal strengthened for what was before her. Both Agnes
and Mrs. Noah noticed the strangely beautiful expression of her face,
when she came down to the breakfast-room, while Jessie, as she kissed
her pale cheek, whispered: "You look as if you had been with the angels." Guy was not expected
with his bride for two weeks, or more, and as the days dragged on,
Maddy felt that the waiting for him was more intolerable than the
seeing him with Lucy would be. Restless and impatient, she could not
remain quietly at the cottage--while at Aikenside, she longed to
return again to her own home, and in this way the time wore on, until
the anniversary of that day when she had come from New York, and found
Guy waiting for her the station. To stay that day in the house so rife
with memories of the dead was impossible, and Flora was surprised and
delighted to hear that both were going up to Aikenside in the vehicle
hired of Farmer Green, whose officiated as driver. It was nearly noon
when they reached their destination, meeting at the gate with Flora's
brother Tom, who said to them: "We've heard from Mr. Guy; the ship is in; they'll be here sure
to-night, and Mrs. Noah is turnin' things upside down with the dinner."
Leaning back in the buggy, Maddy felt for a moment as if she were
dying. Never until then had she realized how, all the while, she had
been clinging to an indefinable hope, a presentiment that something
might yet occur to spare her from a long lifetime of pain, such as lay
before her if Guy were really lost; but the bubble had burst, leaving
her nothing to hope, nothing to cling to, nothing but black despair;
and half bewildered, she received the noisy greeting of Jessie, who
met her at the door, and dragged her into the drawing-room, decorated
with flowers from the hothouse, told her to guess who was coming.