“No.  He was staying there to punish himself for cowardice in that affair of the Warren ghost.  It seems they have a club for bringing themselves up, and they punish themselves when they do wrong.  Jerry told Mr. Meredith all about it.”

“The poor little souls,” said Miss Cornelia.

Carl got better rapidly, for the congregation took enough nourishing things to the manse to furnish forth a hospital.  Norman Douglas drove up every evening with a dozen fresh eggs and a jar of Jersey cream.  Sometimes he stayed an hour and bellowed arguments on predestination with Mr. Meredith in the study; oftener he drove on up to the hill that overlooked the Glen.

When Carl was able to go again to Rainbow Valley they had a special feast in his honour and the doctor came down and helped them with the fireworks.  Mary Vance was there, too, but she did not tell any ghost stories.  Miss Cornelia had given her a talking on that subject which Mary would not forget in a hurry.

CHAPTER XXXII.  TWO STUBBORN PEOPLE

Rosemary West, on her way home from a music lesson at Ingleside, turned aside to the hidden spring in Rainbow Valley.  She had not been there all summer; the beautiful little spot had no longer any allurement for her.  The spirit of her young lover never came to the tryst now; and the memories connected with John Meredith were too painful and poignant.  But she had happened to glance backward up the valley and had seen Norman Douglas vaulting as airily as a stripling over the old stone dyke of the Bailey garden and thought he was on his way up the hill.  If he overtook her she would have to walk home with him and she was not going to do that.  So she slipped at once behind the maples of the spring, hoping he had not seen her and would pass on.

But Norman had seen her and, what was more, was in pursuit of her.  He had been wanting for some time to have talk with Rosemary, but she had always, so it seemed, avoided him.  Rosemary had never, at any time, liked Norman Douglas very well.  His bluster, his temper, his noisy hilarity, had always antagonized her.  Long ago she had often wondered how Ellen could possibly be attracted to him.  Norman Douglas was perfectly aware of her dislike and he chuckled over it.  It never worried Norman if people did not like him.  It did not even make him dislike them in return, for he took it as a kind of extorted compliment.  He thought Rosemary a fine girl, and he meant to be an excellent, generous brother-in-law to her.  But before he could be her brother-in-law he had to have a talk with her, so, having seen her leaving Ingleside as he stood in the doorway of a Glen store, he had straightway plunged into the valley to overtake her.