to talk it out with some one at
last or go crazy. John Douglas begun to go with me twenty years ago,
before mother died. Well, he kept coming and coming, and after a spell I
begun making quilts and things; but he never said anything about getting
married, only just kept coming and coming. There wasn't anything I could
do. Mother died when we'd been going together for eight years. I thought
he maybe would speak out then, seeing as I was left alone in the world.
He was real kind and feeling, and did everything he could for me, but
he never said marry. And that's the way it has been going on ever since.
People blame ME for it. They say I won't marry him because his mother is
so sickly and I don't want the bother of waiting on her. Why, I'd LOVE
to wait on John's mother! But I let them think so. I'd rather they'd
blame me than pity me! It's so dreadful humiliating that John won't ask
me. And WHY won't he? Seems to me if I only knew his reason I wouldn't
mind it so much."

"Perhaps his mother doesn't want him to marry anybody," suggested Anne.

"Oh, she does. She's told me time and again that she'd love to see John
settled before her time comes. She's always giving him hints--you heard
her yourself the other day. I thought I'd ha' gone through the floor."

"It's beyond me," said Anne helplessly. She thought of Ludovic Speed.
But the cases were not parallel. John Douglas was not a man of Ludovic's
type.

"You should show more spirit, Janet," she went on resolutely. "Why
didn't you send him about his business long ago?"

"I couldn't," said poor Janet pathetically. "You see, Anne, I've always
been awful fond of John. He might just as well keep coming as not, for
there was never anybody else I'd want, so it didn't matter."

"But it might have made him speak out like a man," urged Anne.

Janet shook her head.

"No, I guess not. I was afraid to try, anyway, for fear he'd think I
meant it and just go. I suppose I'm a poor-spirited creature, but that
is how I feel. And I can't help it."

"Oh, you COULD help it, Janet. It isn't too late yet. Take a firm stand.
Let that man know you are not going to endure his shillyshallying any
longer. I'LL back you up."

"I dunno," said Janet hopelessly. "I dunno if I could ever get up enough
spunk. Things have drifted so long. But I'll think it over."

Anne felt that she was disappointed in John Douglas. She had liked him
so well, and she had not thought him the sort of man who would p