“Very good,” said Miss Edith; “you can go into the kitchen and have something to eat.”  And, calling a maid, she gave orders for the man’s entertainment.

“Now,” said she, turning to me, “let us take a walk through the orchard.  I want to talk to you.”

“No,” said I, “I can’t talk at present.  I must go immediately to the inn with those papers.  It is right that not a moment should be lost in delivering this most momentous message which has been intrusted to me.”

“But I must speak to you first,” said she, and she walked rapidly towards the orchard.  As she still held the papers in her hand, I was obliged to follow her.

CHAPTER XIV

MISS EDITH IS DISAPPOINTED

As soon as we had begun to walk under the apple-trees she turned to me and said:  “I don’t think you ought to take this letter and the bill to Mrs. Chester.  It would not be right.  There would be something cruel about it.”

“What do you mean?” I exclaimed.

“Of course I do not know exactly the state of the case,” she answered, “but I will tell you what I think about it as far as I know.  You must not be offended at what I say.  If I am a friend to anybody—­and I would be ashamed if I were not a friend to you—­I must tell him just what I think about things, and this is what I think about this thing:  I ought to take these papers to Mrs. Chester.  I know her well enough, and it is a woman who ought to go to her at such a time.”

“That message was intrusted to me,” I said.  “Of course it was,” she answered, “but the bear man did not know what he was doing.  He did not understand the circumstances.”

[Illustration:  “‘I don’t think you ought to take this letter’”]

“What circumstances?” I asked.

She gave me a look as if she were going to take aim at me and wanted to be sure of my position.  Then she said:  “Percy told us he thought you were courting Mrs. Chester.  That was pure impertinence on his part, and perhaps what father said at the table was impertinence too, but I know he said it because he thought there might be something in Percy’s chatter, and that you ought to understand how things stood.  Now, you may think it impertinence on my part if you choose, but it really does seem to me that you are very much interested in Mrs. Chester.  Didn’t you intend to walk down to the Holly Sprig when you were starting out by yourself this morning?”

“Yes,” said I, “I did.”

“I thought so,” she replied.  “That, of course, was your own business, and what father said about her being unwilling to marry again need not have made any difference to you if you had chosen not to mind it.  But now, don’t you think, if you look at the matter fairly and squarely, it would be pretty hard on Mrs. Chester if you were to go down to her and make her understand that she really is a widow, and that now she is free to listen to you if you want to say anything to her?  This may sound a little hard and cruel, but don’t you think it is the way she would have to look at it?”