autumn
morning, clear and crisp and sunny; the frosted ferns, drenched and
battered with the rain of yesterday, gave out a delicious fragrance;
here and there in the woods a maple waved a gay crimson banner, or a
branch of birch showed pale golden against the dark, unchanging spruces.
The air was very pure and exhilarating. Sylvia walked with a joyous
lightness of step and uplift of brow.

At the beech in the hollow she paused for an expectant moment, but there
was nothing among the gray old roots for her. She was just turning
away when little Teddy Kimball, who lived next door to the manse,
came running down the slope from the direction of the old Lloyd place.
Teddy's freckled face was very pale.

"Oh, Miss Gray!" he gasped. "I guess Old Lady Lloyd has gone clean crazy
at last. The minister's wife asked me to run up to the Old Lady, with a
message about the Sewing Circle--and I knocked--and knocked--and nobody
came--so I thought I'd just step in and leave the letter on the
table. But when I opened the door, I heard an awful queer laugh in the
sitting-room, and next minute, the Old Lady came to the sitting-room
door. Oh, Miss Gray, she looked awful. Her face was red and her eyes
awful wild--and she was muttering and talking to herself and laughing
like mad. I was so scared I just turned and run."

Sylvia, without stopping for reflection, caught Teddy's hand and ran
up the slope. It did not occur to her to be frightened, although she
thought with Teddy that the poor, lonely, eccentric Old Lady had really
gone out of her mind at last.

The Old Lady was sitting on the kitchen sofa when Sylvia entered. Teddy,
too frightened to go in, lurked on the step outside. The Old Lady still
wore the damp black silk dress in which she had walked from the station.
Her face was flushed, her eyes wild, her voice hoarse. But she knew
Sylvia and cowered down.

"Don't look at me," she moaned. "Please go away--I can't bear that YOU
should know how poor I am. You're to go to Europe--Andrew Cameron is
going to send you--I asked him--he couldn't refuse ME. But please go
away."

Sylvia did not go away. At a glance she had seen that this was sickness
and delirium, not insanity. She sent Teddy off in hot haste for Mrs.
Spencer and when Mrs. Spencer came they induced the Old Lady to go to
bed, and sent for the doctor. By night everybody in Spencervale knew
that Old Lady Lloyd had pneumonia.

Mrs. Spencer announced that she meant to stay an