Here's a piece of news for all of you--
Phebe is coming home to visit She wrote me to say so, and I only got
the letter this evening. Whatever do you suppose took her?"
Hannah at once flushed with excitement--like, Calvin Stammark thought,
the parlor lamp with the pink shade, turned up suddenly. An instant
vague depression settled over him; Hannah, only the minute before in
his arms, seemed to draw away from him, remote and unconcerned by
anything but Phebe's extraordinary return. Hosmer made it clear that
the event promised nothing but annoyance for him.
"She's coming by to-morrow's stage," he went on, untouched by the
sensation his information had wrought in the kitchen; "and it's certain
I can't meet her. The bank's sending me into West Virginia about some
securities."
Richmond Braley, it developed further, was bound to a day's work on the
public roads. They turned to Calvin.
"Take my buggy," Hosmer offered; "I'll have to go from Durban by rail."
There was no reason why he shouldn't meet Phebe Braley, Calvin
realized. He lingered, gazing with silent longing at Hannah, but it was
evident that she had no intention of returning to the parlor.
III
Waiting in Hosmer's buggy for the arrival of the Greenstream stage and
Phebe Braley, Calvin was conscious of the persistence of the depression
that had invaded him at the announcement of her visit. He resented,
too, the new element thrust into the Braley household, disrupting the
familiar course of his love.
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