Mrs. Black nodded approvingly.  “So I would.”  She hesitated a moment, then she spoke again.  “I was just a little bit doubtful about taking that young woman in yesterday,” said she.

Elliot regarded her curiously.  “Then you never had met her before?”

“No, she just landed here with her trunk.  The garage man brought her, and she said he told her I took boarders, and she asked me to take her.  I don’t know but I was kind of weak to give in, but the poor little thing looked sort of nice, and her manners were pretty, so I took her.  I thought I would ask you how you felt about it this morning, but there ain’t any reason to, perhaps, for she ain’t going to stay here very long, anyway.  She says she’s going to buy the old Bolton place and have it fixed up and settle down there as soon as she can.  She told me after you had gone out.  She’s gone now to look at it.  Mr. Whittle was going to meet her there.  Queer, ain’t it?”

“It does look extraordinary, rather,” agreed Elliot, “but Miss Orr may be older than she looks.”

“Oh, she ain’t old, but she’s of age.  She told me that, and I guess she’s got plenty of money.”

“Well,” said Elliot, “that is rather a fine old place.  She may be connected with the Bolton family.”

“That’s exactly what I think, and if she was she wouldn’t mention it, of course.  I think she’s getting the house in some sort of a business way.  Andrew Bolton may have died in prison by this time, and she may be an heir.  I think she is going to be married and have the house fixed up to live in.”

“That sounds very probable.”

“Yes, it does; but what gets me is her buying that fair.  I own I felt a little scared, and wondered if she had all her buttons, but when she told me about the house I knew of course she could use the things for furnishing, all except the cake and candy, and I suppose if she’s got a lot of money she thought she’d like to buy to help.  I feel glad she’s coming.  She may be a real help in the church.  Now don’t color up.  Ministers have to take help.  It’s part of their discipline.”

Sometimes Mrs. Solomon Black said a wise and consoling thing.  Elliot, moving his effects to the old parsonage, considered that she had done so then.  “She is right.  I have no business to be proud in the profession calling for the lowly-hearted of the whole world,” he told himself.

After he had his books arranged he sat down in an armchair beside a front window, and felt rather happy and at home.  He reproached himself for his content when he read the morning paper, and considered the horrors going on in Europe.  Why should he, an able-bodied man, sit securely in a room and gaze out at a peaceful village street? he asked himself as he had scores of times before.  Then the imperial individual, which obtrudes even when conscience cries out against it, occupied his mind.  Pretty Fanny Dodge in her blue linen was passing.  She never once glanced at the parsonage.  Forgetting his own scruples and resolves, he thought unreasonably that she might at least glance up, if she had the day before at all in her mind.  Suddenly the unwelcome reflection that he might not be as desirable as he had thought himself came over him.