Page:Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920).djvu/301

Rh “It’s for the last time, Aunt Rachel. After to-day I can never talk of him, or even think of him. It’s four years since he went away. Do you remember how he looked, Aunt Rachel?”

“I mind well enough, I reckon,” I said, kind of curt-like. And I did. Owen Blair hadn’t a face a body could forget — that long face of his with its clean color and its eyes made to look love into a woman's. When I thought of Mark Foster’s sallow skin and lank jaws I felt sick-like. Not that Mark was ugly — he was just a common-looking fellow.

“He was so handsome, wasn’t he, Aunt Rachel?” my dearie went on, in that patient voice of hers. “So tall and strong and handsome. I wish we hadn’t parted in anger. It was so foolish of us to quarrel. But it would have been all right if he had lived to come back. I know it would have been all right. I know he didn’t carry any bitterness against me to his death. I thought once, Aunt Rachel, that I would go through life true to him, and then, over on the other side, I’d meet him just as before, all his and his only. But it isn’t to be.”

“Thanks to your stepma’s wheedling and Mark Foster’s scheming,” said I.

“No, Mark didn’t scheme,” she said patiently. “Don’t be unjust to Mark, Aunt Rachel. He has been very good and kind.”

“He's as stupid as an owlet and as stubborn as