"Oh, Mr. Remington," and Maddy began to cry: "I am afraid I cannot
stay they need me at home, or maybe Grandpa said so and I don't want
to go, though I know it's wicked not to; oh, dear, dear!"
Here Maddy broke down entirely, sobbing so convulsively that Guy
became alarmed, and wondered what he ought to do to quiet her. As she
sat the bowed head was just within his reach, and so he very naturally
laid his hand upon it, and as if it had been Jessie's smoothed the
silken hair, while he asked why she must go home. Had anything
occurred to make her presence more necessary than it was at Aikenside?
and into the young man's heart there crept a feeling that Aikenside
would be very lonely without Maddy Clyde.
Controlling her voice as well as she was able, Maddy told him how the
physicians at the asylum had written that as Uncle Joseph would in all
human probability never be perfectly sane, and as a change of scene
would do him good, Mr. Markham had better try taking him a while; that
having been spoken with upon the subject, he seemed as anxious as a
little child, even crying when the night came around and he was not at
home, as he expressed it. "They have kept him so long," Maddy said,
"that grandpa thought it his duty to relieve them, though he can't
well afford it, and so he's coming next week, and grandma will need
some one to help, and I must go. I know it's wrong, but I do not want
to go, try as I will"
It was a gloomy prospect to exchange Aikenside for the humble home
where poverty had its abode, and it was not very strange that Maddy
should shrink from it at first. She did not stop to ask what was her
duty, or think how much happiness her presence might give her
grandparents, or how much she might cheer and amuse the weak imbecile,
her uncle. She was but human, and so when Guy began to devise ways of
preventing her going, she listened, while the pain at her heart grew
less as her faith in Guy grew stronger. He would drive down with her
to-morrow, he said, and see what could be done. Meanwhile she must dry
her eyes and go to Jessie, who was calling her.
As Guy had half expected, the doctor came around that evening, and
inviting him into his private room, Guy proceeded at once to unfold
his scheme, asking him first: "How much he probably received a year for his services as physician."