Unquestionably she had made a lifelike and extraordinarily attractive
portrait of a man of distinguished features, caught at a moment when he
had had no notion that the thing was happening. She studied it long and
attentively.
"It would have been better if I hadn't made it," she said slowly to
herself. "For now I shall have it to look at, and I shall have to look at
it. I'm not strong enough--not strong enough--I don't _want_ to be strong
enough--to forego that!"
* * * * *
After nightfall, on that September evening, Leaver took his departure.
Burns was to convey him in the Imp to the city station, because his
train did not stop in the suburban village. For a half-hour before his
going Burns's porch was full, the Macauleys and the Chesters having come
over to do Dr. Leaver honour. They found less chance for talking with him
than they might have done if he had not gone off with Miss Mathewson for
a short walk.
"Something in it, possibly, do you think?" James Macauley asked, in an
aside, of Mrs. Burns. "Miss Mathewson certainly has developed a lot of
good looks this summer that I, for one, never suspected her of before.
Whether she could interest a man like him I don't know and can't guess.
He's no ordinary man. I didn't like him much at first, but as he's
improved in health he's shown up for what he is, and I can understand
Red's interest in getting him on his feet again.
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