"Even goddesses must live," said Anne. "And Leslie isn't a goddess.
She's just a very beautiful woman, as human as the rest of us. Did
Miss Bryant tell you about Mr. Moore?"

"Yes,--he's mentally deficient, or something of the sort, isn't he?
But she said nothing about Mrs. Moore, and I supposed she'd be the
usual hustling country housewife who takes in boarders to earn an
honest penny."

"Well, that's just what Leslie is doing," said Anne crisply. "And it
isn't altogether pleasant for her, either. I hope you won't mind Dick.
If you do, please don't let Leslie see it. It would hurt her horribly.
He's just a big baby, and sometimes a rather annoying one."

"Oh, I won't mind him. I don't suppose I'll be much in the house
anyhow, except for meals. But what a shame it all is! Her life must
be a hard one."

"It is. But she doesn't like to be pitied."

Leslie had gone back into the house and now met them at the front door.
She greeted Owen Ford with cold civility, and told him in a
business-like tone that his room and his supper were ready for him.
Dick, with a pleased grin, shambled upstairs with the valise, and Owen
Ford was installed as an inmate of the old house among the willows.

CHAPTER 24

THE LIFE-BOOK OF CAPTAIN JIM

"I have a little brown cocoon of an idea that may possibly expand into
a magnificent moth of fulfilment," Anne told Gilbert when she reached
home. He had returned earlier than she had expected, and was enjoying
Susan's cherry pie. Susan herself hovered in the background, like a
rather grim but beneficent guardian spirit, and found as much pleasure
in watching Gilbert eat pie as he did in eating it.

"What is your idea?" he asked.

"I sha'n't tell you just yet--not till I see if I can bring the thing
about."

"What sort of a chap is Ford?"

"Oh, very nice, and quite good-looking."

"Such beautiful ears, doctor, dear," interjected Susan with a relish.

"He is about thirty or thirty-five, I think, and he meditates writing a
novel. His voice is pleasant and his smile delightful, and he knows
how to dress. He looks as if life hadn't been altogether easy for him,
somehow."

Owen Ford came over the next evening with a note to Anne from Leslie;
they spent the sunset time in the garden and then went for a moonlit
sail on the harbor, in the little boat Gilbert had set up for summer
outings. They liked Owen immensely and had that feeling of having
known him for many years