Without looking at her Mr. Chamberlayne answered almost sharply.  “The whole truth of the matter is that there was a still more absurd idea in his mind, dear lady,” he replied.  “I may as well let you know it now since I combated it uselessly in my last interview with him.  At the bottom of his heart Jonathan remained incorrigibly romantic until his death, and he clung desperately to the hope that if Molly received the education he intended her to have, her beauty and her charm, which seemed to him very remarkable, might win his nephew’s affections, if she were thrown in his way.  That in short, is the secret meaning of this extraordinary document.”

The uncomfortable silence was broken by a laugh as Gay rose to his feet.  “Well, of all the ridiculous ideas!” he exclaimed in the sincerity of his amusement.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE SHADE OF REUBEN

Arm in arm Reuben and Molly walked slowly home through the orchard.  Neither spoke until the old man called to Spot at his doorstep, and then Molly noticed that his breath came with a whistling sound that was unlike his natural voice.

“Are you tired, grandfather?  What is the matter?”

“It’s my chest, daughter.  Let me sit down a while an’ it will pass.  Who is that yonder on the bench?”

“Old Mr. Doolittle.  Wait here a minute before you speak to him.”

It was a perfect spring afternoon, and the air was filled with vague, roving scents, as if the earth exhaled the sweetness of hidden flowers.  In the apple orchard the young grass was powdered with gold, and the long grey shadows of the trees barred the ground like the sketchy outlines in a impressionist painting.

On a bench at one end of the porch old Adam was sitting, and at sight of them, he rose, and stood waiting with his pipe in his hand.

“As ‘twas sech a fine day an’ thar warn’t any work on hand for a man of my years, I thought I’d walk over an’ pay my respects to you,” he said.  “I’ve heard that ‘twas yo’ granddaughter’s birthday an’ that she’s like to change her name befo’ it’s time for another.”

“Well, I’m glad to see you, old Adam,” replied Reuben, sinking into a chair while he invited his visitor to another.  “I’ve gone kind of faint, honey,” he added, “an’ I reckon we’d both like a sip of blackberry wine if you’ve got it handy.  Miss Kesiah gave me something to drink, but my throat was so stiff I couldn’t swallow it.”

The blackberry wine was kept in a large stone crock in the cellar, and while she filled the glasses, Molly heard the voice of old Adam droning on above the chirping of the birds in the orchard.

“I’ve been settin’ here steddyin’ them weeds out thar over-runnin’ everything,” he was saying, “an’ it does appear to a considerin’ body that the Lord might have made ’em good grass an’ grain with precious little trouble to Himself an’ a mortal lot of satisfaction to the po’ farmers.”