"But it's different with Teddy."
"Teddy was wildly elated to-night... and so was I when I heard his news. He showed two of his pictures at the Charlottetown exhibition in September, and Mr. Lewes, of Montreal, has offered him fifty dollars apiece for them. That will pay his board in Shrewsbury for the winter and make it easier for Mrs. Kent. Although SHE wasn't glad when he told her. She said, 'Oh, yes, you think you are independent of me now'... and cried. Teddy was hurt, because he had never thought of such a thing. Poor Mrs. Kent. She must be very lonely. There is some strange barrier between her and her kind. I haven't been to the Tansy Patch for a long, long time. Once in the summer I went with Aunt Laura, who had heard Mrs. Kent was ill. Mrs. Kent was able to be up and she talked to Aunt Laura, but she never spoke to me, only looked at me now and then with a queer, smouldering fire in her eyes. But when we rose to come away, she spoke once... and said,
"'You are very tall. You will soon be a woman... and stealing some other woman's son from her.'
"Aunt Laura said, as we walked home, that Mrs. Kent had always been strange, but was growing stranger.
"'Some people think her mind is affected,' she said.
"'I don't think the trouble is in her mind. She has a sick soul,' I said.
"'Emily, dear, that is a dreadful thing to say,' said Aunt Laura.
"I don't see why. If bodies and minds can be sick, can't souls be, too? There are times when I feel as certain as if I had been told it that Mrs. Kent got some kind of terrible soul-wound some time, and it has never healed. I wish she didn't hate me. It hurts me to have Teddy's mother hate me. I don't know why this is. Dean is just as dear a friend as Teddy, yet I wouldn't care if all the rest of the Priest clan hated me.
"October 19, 19...
"Ilse and the other seven applicants were elected Skulls and Owls. I was black-beaned. We were notified to that effect Monday.
"Of course, I know it was Evelyn Blake who did it. There is nobody else who would do it. Ilse was furious: she tore into pieces the notification of her election and sent the scraps back to the secretary with a scathing repudiation of the Skull and Owl and all its works.
"Evelyn met me in the cloakroom to-day and assured me that she had voted for both Ilse and me.
"'Has anyone been saying you did not?' I asked, in my best Aunt Elizabethan manner.
"'Yes... Ilse has,' said Evelyn peevishly. 'She was very insolent to me about it. Do you want to know who I THINK put the black bean in?'
"I looked Evelyn straight in the eyes.
"'No, it is not necessary. I KNOW who put it in'... and I turned and left her.
"Most of the Skulls and Owls are very angry about it... especially the Skulls. One or two Owls, I have heard, hoot that it is a good pill for the Murray pride. And, of course, several Seniors and Juniors who were not among the favoured nine are either gloatingly rejoiced or odiously sympathetic.
"Aunt Ruth heard of it to-day and wanted to know WHY I was black- beaned.
"New Moon, "November 5, 19...
"Aunt Laura and I spent this afternoon, the one teaching, the other learning, a certain New Moon tradition... to wit, how to put pickles into glass jars in patterns. We stowed away the whole big crockful of new pickles, and when Aunt Elizabeth came to look them over she admitted she could not tell those which Aunt Laura had done from mine.
"This evening was very delightful. I had a good time with myself, out in the garden. It was lovely there to-night with the eerie loveliness of a fine November evening. At sunset there had been a wild little shower of snow, but it had cleared off, leaving the world just lightly covered, and the air clear and tingling. Almost all the flowers, including my wonderful asters, which were a vision all through the fall, were frozen black two weeks ago, but the beds still had white drifts of alyssum all around them. A big, smoky- red hunter's moon was just rising above the tree-tops. There was a yellow-red glow in the west behind the white hills on which a few dark trees grew. The snow had banished all the strange deep sadness of a dead landscape on a late fall evening, and the slopes and meadows of old New Moon farm were transformed into a wonderland in the faint, early moonlight. The old house had a coating of sparkling snow on its roof. Its lighted windows glowed like jewels. It looked exactly like a picture on a Christmas card. There was just a suggestion of grey-blue chimney smoke over the kitchen. A nice reek of burning autumn leaves came from Cousin Jimmy's smouldering bonfires in the lane. My cats were there, too, stealthy, goblin-eyed, harmonizing with the hour and the place. The twilight... appropriately called the cats' light... is the only time when a cat really reveals himself. Saucy Sal was thin and gleaming, like the silvery ghost of a pussy. Daff was like a dark- grey, skulking tiger. He certainly gives the world assurance of a cat: he doesn't condescend to every one... and he never talks too much. They pounced at my feet and tore off and frisked back and rolled each other over... and were all so a part of the night and the haunted place that they didn't disturb my thoughts at all. I walked up and down the paths and around the dial and the summer- house in exhilaration. Air such as I breathed then always makes me a little drunk, I verily believe. I laughed at myself for feeling badly over not being elected an Owl. An Owl! Why, I felt like a young eagle, soaring sunward. All the world was before me to see and learn, and I exulted in it. The future was mine... and the past, too. I felt as if I had been alive here always... as if I shared in all the loves and lives of the old house. I felt as if I would live always... always... always... I was sure of immortality then. I didn't just believe it... I FELT it.
"Dean found me there: he was close beside me before I was aware of his presence.
"'You are smiling,' said Dean. 'I like to see a woman smiling to herself. Her thoughts must be innocent and pleasant. Has the day been kind to you, dear lady?'
"'Very kind... and this evening is its best gift. I'm SO happy to- night, Dean... just to be alive makes me happy. I feel as if I were driving a team of stars. I wish such a mood could last, I feel so sure of myself to-night... so sure of my future. I'm not afraid of ANYTHING. At life's banquet of success I may not be the guest of honour, but I'll be among those present.'