Read The Blythes Are Quoted for Free Online

been haunted by the fear that the house will go next ... and me locked in here.”
    “Locked!”
    “Why, yes. I make Lucia lock my door every night ... though she hates to do it. I could never sleep ... I’m a wretched sleeper at any time except in the early morning. But I couldn’t sleep at all with that door unlocked and goodness knows what prowling around the house.”
    “But the goodness knows what isn’t baffled by locked doors ... if the Min Deacon and Maggie Eldon tales are to be believed.”
    “Oh, I don’t believe Min or Maggie really had their doors locked when the things happened to them. Of course, they thought they had. But they must have forgotten for once. At any rate I make sure mine is always locked.”
    “I don’t think that is wise, Miss Harper, I really don’t.”
    “Oh, the door is old and thin and could easily be broken in if there was any serious need for it. Well, we won’t talk any more about it just now. But I want you to keep your eyes open ... metaphorically ... as far as everybody is concerned ... everybody ... and we’ll see what we can do together. And you’ll let me help you in the church work as much as I can, won’t you? Mr. Sheldon did ... though I never thought he really wanted me to.”
    “I will be very glad to have your help and counsel, Miss Harper. And I assure you Mr. Sheldon spoke to me most highly of your influence and work.”
    “Well, I want to do what I can while I’m here. Some of these days I’ll just go out ... poof! ... as a candle flickers and dies. My heart won’t behave. Now, never mind hunting in your mind, Mr. Burns, for the proper and tactful thing to say ...”
    “I wasn’t,” protested Curtis, perhaps not altogether truthfully. “But surely a doctor ...”
    “Dr. Blythe says there is nothing really wrong with my heart except nerves and other doctors say different things. I know . And I’ve looked death too long in the face to be afraid of it. Only sometimes in the long, wakeful hours I shrink a little from it ... even though life holds nothing for me. It seems to me that I’ve been cheated. Well, my lot is easier than that of hundreds of others after all.”
    “Miss Harper, is it certain nothing can be done for you?”
    “Absolutely. Uncle Winthrop didn’t leave it to Dr. Blythe’s opinion, you know. He had a dozen specialists here. The last was Dr. Clifford of Halifax ... you know him? When he could do me no good I simply told Uncle Winthrop I would have no more doctors. I would not have them spending money on me when they could not afford it and might just as well burn it. So you see Dr. Blythe’s opinion was fully justified in this instance at least.”
    “But new things are being discovered every day ...”
    “Nothing that would help me. Oh, I’m not so badly off as hundreds of others. Everyone is so good to me ... and I flatter myself I am not altogether useless. It’s only once a week or so that I suffer much. So we’ll let it go at that, Mr. Burns. I’m more interested in the church work and your success here. I want you to get along well.”
    “So do I,” laughed Curtis ... although he did not feel like laughing.
    “Don’t be too good-tempered,” said Alice, solemnly, but with mischief glimmering in her eyes. “Mr. Sheldon was never put out about anything and he was scandalously imposed on.”
    “Saints generally are,” said Curtis.
    “Poor old man, he hated to retire but it was really time. The Conference never knows what to do with old men. He has never been the same since the death of his wife. He took it terribly hard. Indeed, for a year after her death people thought his mind was affected. He would do and say such odd things, with apparently no recollection of them afterwards. And he took such a spite to Alec ... said he wasn’t orthodox. But that all passed. Will you draw up my blind and lower my light, please? Thank you. What a majestic sweep of wind there is in the trees tonight! And no moonlight. I