Page:Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920).djvu/207

Rh it, Chester. You must promise not to go to see her again. I won’t go into the house this night until you do. I'll stay out here in the bitter cold until you promise to put her out of your thoughts.”

“That’s beyond my power, mother. Oh, mother, you're making it hard for me. Come in, come in! You’re shivering with cold now. You'll be sick.”

“Not a step will I stir till you promise. Say you won't go to see that girl any more, and there’s nothing I won’t do for you. But, if you put her before me, I'll not go in — I never will go in.”

With most women this would have been an empty threat; but it was not so with Thyra, and Chester knew it. He knew she would keep her word. And he feared more than that. In this frenzy of hers what might she not do? She came of a strange breed, as had been said disapprovingly when Luke Carewe married her. There was a strain of insanity in the Lincolns. A Lincoln woman had drowned herself once. Chester thought of the river, and grew sick with fright. For a moment even his passion for Damaris weakened before the older tie.

“Mother, calm yourself. Oh, surely there’s no need of all this! Let us wait until to-morrow, and talk it over then. I'll hear all you have to say. Come in, dear.”

Thyra loosened her arms from about him, and