Paul
Osborne's name was written in faded ink across the corner.
We put everything back in the box. Then we sat for a long time
by my window in silence and thought of many things, until the
rainy twilight came down and blotted out the world.
IX. SARA'S WAY
The warm June sunshine was coming down through the trees, white
with the virginal bloom of apple-blossoms, and through the
shining panes, making a tremulous mosaic upon Mrs. Eben Andrews'
spotless kitchen floor. Through the open door, a wind, fragrant
from long wanderings over orchards and clover meadows, drifted
in, and, from the window, Mrs. Eben and her guest could look down
over a long, misty valley sloping to a sparkling sea.
Mrs. Jonas Andrews was spending the afternoon with her
sister-in-law. She was a big, sonsy woman, with full-blown peony
cheeks and large, dreamy, brown eyes. When she had been a slim,
pink-and-white girl those eyes had been very romantic. Now they
were so out of keeping with the rest of her appearance as to be
ludicrous.
Mrs. Eben, sitting at the other end of the small tea-table that
was drawn up against the window, was a thin little woman, with a
very sharp nose and light, faded blue eyes. She looked like a
woman whose opinions were always very decided and warranted to
wear.
"How does Sara like teaching at Newbridge?" asked Mrs. Jonas,
helping herself a second time to Mrs. Eben's matchless black
fruit cake, and thereby bestowing a subtle compliment which Mrs.
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