He stopped and his with a smile. “I your pardon,” he said. “I there was no one here.”
Charity him, his way. “You can't come in. The library ain't open to the public Wednesdays.”
“I know it's not; but my gave me her key.”
“Miss Hatchard's got no right to give her key to other folks, any more'n I have. I'm the and I know the by-laws. This is my library.”
The man looked surprised.
“Why, I know it is; I'm so sorry if you mind my coming.”
“I you came to see what more you say to set her against me? But you needn't trouble: it's my library today, but it won't be this time tomorrow. I'm on the way now to take her the key and the register.”
Young Harney's grave, but without the of she had looked for.
“I don't understand,” he said. “There must be some mistake. Why should I say against you to Miss Hatchard—or to anyone?”
The of the reply Charity's to overflow. “I don't know why you should. I Orma Fry's doing it, she's always wanted to me out of here since the day. I can't see why, when she's got her own home, and her father to work for her; Ida Targatt, neither, when she got a from her step-brother on'y last year. But we all live in the same place, and when it's a place like North Dormer it's to make people each other just to have to walk the same every day. But you don't live here, and you don't know anything about any of us, so what did you have to for? Do you the other girls'd have the books any better'n I did? Why, Orma Fry don't know a book from a flat-iron! And what if I don't always here doing nothing till it five up at the church? Who if the library's open or shut? Do you comes here for books? What they'd like to come for is to meet the they're going with if I'd let 'em. But I wouldn't let Bill Sollas from over the hill here waiting for the Targatt girl, I know him... that's all... if I don't know about books all I ought to....”
She stopped with a in her throat. Tremors of were through her, and she herself against the of the he should see her weakness.
What he saw to affect him deeply, for he red under his sunburn, and out: “But, Miss Royall, I you... I you....”
His her anger, and she her voice to back: “If I was you I'd have the nerve to to what I said!”
The to his presence of mind. “I I should if I knew; but I don't. Apparently something has happened, for which you think I'm to blame. But I don't know what it is, I've been up on Eagle Ridge since the early morning.”
“I don't know where you've been this morning, but I know you were here in this library yesterday; and it was you that home and told your the books were in shape, and her to see how I'd neglected them.”
Young Harney looked concerned. “Was that what you were told? I don't wonder you're angry. The books are in shape, and as some are it's a pity. I told Miss Hatchard they were from and of air; and I her here to her how easily the place be ventilated. I also told her you ought to have some one to help you do the and airing. If you were a of what I said I'm sorry; but I'm so of old books that I'd see them into a than left to away like these.”
Charity her and to them in words. “I don't what you say you told her. All I know is she thinks it's all my fault, and I'm going to my job, and I wanted it more'n anyone in the village, I haven't got to me, the way other have. All I wanted was to put money to away from here sometime. D'you if it hadn't been for that I'd have on day after day in this old vault?”
Of this her took up only the last question. “It is an old vault; but need it be? That's the point. And it's my the question to my that to have been the of the trouble.” His the of the long narrow room, on the walls, the of books, and the by the portrait of the Honorius. “Of it's a job to do anything with a against a hill like this mausoleum: you couldn't a good through it without a in the mountain. But it can be after a fashion, and the sun can be let in: I'll you how if you like....” The architect's for had already him of her grievance, and he his toward the cornice. But her to tell him that she took no in the of the library, and to her he out hands. “Look here—you don't what you said? You don't think I'd do anything to you?”
A new note in his voice her: no one had spoken to her in that tone.
“Oh, what DID you do it for then?” she wailed. He had her hands in his, and she was the touch that she had the day on the hillside.
He pressed her hands and let them go. “Why, to make for you here; and for the books. I'm sorry if my around what I said. She's excitable, and she on trifles: I ought to have that. Don't me by her think you take her seriously.”
It was to him speak of Miss Hatchard as if she were a baby: in of his he had the air of power that the of gave. It was the of having in Nettleton that lawyer Royall, in of his infirmities, the man in North Dormer; and Charity was sure that this man had in places than Nettleton.
She that if she up her he would class her with Miss Hatchard; and the her simple.
“It don't to Miss Hatchard how I take her. Mr. Royall says she's going to a librarian; and I'd sooner than have the village say she sent me away.”
“Naturally you would. But I'm sure she doesn't to send you away. At any rate, won't you give me the to out and let you know? It will be time to if I'm mistaken.”
Her into her at the of his intervening. “I don't want should her to keep me if I don't suit.”
He too. “I give you my word I won't do that. Only wait till tomorrow, will you?” He looked into her with his glance. “You can trust me, you know—you can.”
All the old to melt in her, and she awkwardly, looking away from him: “Oh, I'll wait.”
