r why he wouldn't speak to me?" she thought, with a pang. "I
wonder if he has really got over caring?" She had always thought of
Abel as a possession more absolutely her own than even Mr. Jonathan's
provision. When she had said so passionately that she wanted to be free,
she had not meant that at any minute she chose, Abel would not be ready
and willing to fly back into bondage. That Abel, after all these years,
should actually have ceased to care for her--should have refused even to
speak to her! It was absurd--it was vindictive--it was unchristian!
She had half a mind to get Mr. Mullen to talk to him. Then her heart
throbbed when she remembered the touch of his hand, the look in his
eyes, the thirst of his lips seeking hers. That was only six months
ago--such a very little while--and now he had rushed away from the sight
of her! She thought of their parting, when she had said that she wanted
to see the world, and he had offered at once to release her. Since then
she had seen the world until she was tired of it. At times she had been
terribly homesick for Old Church, and she had never been happy except
when Gay had taken her to see pictures or into wonderful parks. Always
the thought had lain hidden in her mind that some day, when she could
stand it no longer, she would go back and wear her red jacket and run
free in the fields with Abel again. Her very selfishness had seemed
natural to her because Abel had always been there, like the air and the
sky and the broomsedge; he was a part of the scene, and she found it
impossible to detach him from his surroundings.

At the station in Richmond, Gay met them, and for the first few minutes
his mother absorbed his attention. Molly had not seen him for six
weeks, and she noticed that he had grown fleshier and that this lent an
additional heaviness to his shaven chin. Even his charming smile
could not disguise the slight coarseness of feature, with which he was
beginning already to pay for his pleasures. By the time he was forty, he
would be quite stout and "lumpy," she thought.

There was much excitement about collecting Mrs. Gay's packages, and the
drive to the hotel was filled with anxious inquiries from Kesiah, who
was always nervous and fussy when she travelled.

"Molly, did you see my umbrella put in?"

"Yes, Aunt Kesiah, it is here in the corner by Jonathan."

"I forgot to notice Angela's medicine case. Did you see that it wasn't
overlooked?"

"Yes, Patsey has it."