I should have hidden my worry. But you
must forget it; we must not let it spoil our perfect day. It really is
no great matter. I am affected, in some way you can't know, by his
death, but I'll get over it," he tried to treat the matter lightly.

But Phoebe felt a sudden heaviness of heart. She was almost certain that
David had had no money to buy any stock from Caleb Warner, therefore,
she jumped to the conclusion, it must be that David cared for Mary
Warner, as town gossip said he did, and that the death of the girl's
father would affect him. She felt hurt and baffled and sorely rebuffed
at the withholding of David's confidence and was worried as she saw the
marks of worry in the face of the man. Womanlike, she felt certain that
the other girl was not good enough for David. Mary Warner, beautiful,
aristocratic in bearing and manner--what had she to do with a man like
David Eby! Was an incipient engagement with Mary Warner the Aladdin's
lamp David had mentioned several times as being on the verge of rubbing
and thus become rich? The thought left her trembling; she shivered in
the April sunshine. When David spoke it was with an abstracted manner,
and the girl beside him finally said, "Oh, don't let us talk. Let us
just sit and look at the fields and enjoy the scenery."

She said it calmly enough, but the man beside her could not know that it
required the last shreds of her courage to keep her voice from breaking.
She would not let David see that she cared if he did care for Mary
Warner! Of course, she didn't want to marry him, it was merely that she
knew Mary was too haughty for him. Mother Bab would also say that he was
too different from Mary, that he was too fine for her. Then she
remembered that Mother Bab had said on the previous evening that the
Warners had taken David to Hershey recently in their fine new car. She
shook herself in an effort at self-control. "Phoebe," she thought,
"you're selfish! You go to Philadelphia and you go out with Royal Lee
and dance with other young men, and yet, when David pays attention to
another girl you have a spasm!"

But the self-administered discipline failed to correct her attitude. She
knew their day of all-joy was changed for her as it had been changed for
David. The jealousy in her heart could not be quite overcome. She was
glad when they reached familiar fields and were on the road near
Greenwald.

"Will you come in?" she invited as she left the carriage.

"No. I better