e of Mrs.
Thacher's and Dr. Leslie's unwillingness to receive it appealed to the
young girl, who was glad to believe that her aunt had, after all, more
interest in her than others cared to observe. She had no near
relatives except Miss Prince. There were some cousins of old Mrs.
Thacher's and their descendants settled in the vicinity of Oldfields;
but Nan clung more eagerly to this one closer tie of kindred than she
cared to confess even to her guardian. It was too late now for any
interference in Dr. Leslie's plans, or usurping of his affectionate
relationship; so, after he found that Nan's loyal heart was bent upon
making so kind a venture, he said one day, with a smile, that she had
better write a letter to her aunt, the immediate result of which we
already know. Nan had been studying too hard, and suffering not a
little from her long-continued city life, and though the doctor had
been making a most charming plan that later in the season they should
take a journey together to Canada, he said nothing about that, and
told himself with a sigh that this would be a more thorough change,
and even urged Nan to stay as long as she pleased in Dunport, if she
found her aunt's house pleasant and everything went well. For whether
Nan liked Miss Prince remained to be proved, though nobody in their
senses could doubt that Miss Prince would be proud of her niece.

It was not until after Nan had fairly started that she began to feel
at all dismayed. Perhaps she had done a foolish thing after all;
Marilla had not approved the adventure, while at the last minute Nan
had become suspicious that the doctor had made another plan, though
she contented herself with the remembrance of perfect freedom to go
home whenever she chose. She told herself grimly that if her aunt died
she should be thankful that she had done this duty; yet when, after a
journey of several hours, she knew that Dunport was the next station,
her heart began to beat in a ridiculous manner. It was unlike any
experience that had ever come to her, and she felt strangely unequal
to the occasion. Long ago she had laughed at her early romances of her
grand Dunport belongings, but the memory of them lingered still, in
spite of this commonplace approach to their realities, and she looked
eagerly at the groups of people at the railway station with a great
hope and almost certainty that she should find her aunt waiting to
meet her. There was no such good fortune, which was a chill