Page:Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920).djvu/199

Rh gloated over it, and now get you gone,” she said slowly.

“Now, Thyra,” he began, but she interrupted him threateningly.

“Get you gone, I say! And you need not bring my mail here any longer. I want no more of your misshapen body and lying tongue!”

August went, but at the door he turned for a parting stab.

“My tongue is not a lying one, Mrs. Carewe. I’ve told you the truth, as all Avonlea knows it. Chester is mad about Damaris Garland. It’s no wonder I thought you knew what all the settlement can see. But you're such a jealous, odd body, I suppose the boy hid it from you for fear you'd go into a tantrum. As for me, I'll not forget that you've turned me from your door because I chanced to bring you news you'd no fancy for.”

Thyra did not answer him. When the door closed behind him she locked it and blew out the light. Then she threw herself face downward on the sofa and burst into wild tears. Her very soul ached. She wept as tempestuously and umnreasoningly as youth weeps, although she was not young. It seemed as if she was afraid to stop weeping lest she should go mad thinking. But, after a time, tears failed her, and she began bitterly to go over, word by word, what August Vorst had said,