Latterly Guy had fancied that the doctor did not like the educating process, while even Mrs. Noah managed to keep Maddy out of his way as soon as the lessons were ended. What did they mean? What were they afraid of, and why did they presume to interfere with him? He would know, at all events; and summoning Mrs. Noah to his presence, he read her that part of Agnes’s letter pertaining to Maddy, and asked what it meant. “It means this, that folks are in a constant worry, for fear you’ll fall in love with Maddy Clyde.” “I fall in love with that child!” Guy repeated, laughing at the idea, and forgetting that he had often accused the doctor of doing that very thing. “Yes, you,” returned Mrs. Noah, “and ’taint strange they do; Maddy is not a child; she’s nearer sixteen than fifteen, is almost a young lady; and if you’ll excuse my boldness, I must say I ain’t any too well pleased with the goin’s on myself; not that I don’t like the girl, for I do, and I don’t blame her an atom. She’s as innocent as a new-born babe, and I hope she’ll always stay so; but you, Mr. Guy, you now tell me honest—do you think as much of Lucy Atherstone as you used to, before you took up school-teachin’?” Guy did not like to be interfered with, and, naturally high-spirited, he at first flew into a passion, declaring that he would not have people meddling with him, that he thought of Lucy Atherstone _all_ the time, and he did not know what more he could do; that it was a pity if a man could not enjoy himself in his own way, provided that way were harmless; that he’d never, in all his life, spent so happy a winter as the last; that—— Here Mrs. Noah interrupted him with, “That’s it, the very _it_; you want nothing better than to have that girl sit close to you when she recites, as she does; and once when she was workin’ out some of them _plusses_ and _minuses_, and things, her slate rested on your knee; it did, I saw it with my own eyes; and then, let me ask, when Jessie is drummin’ on the piano, why don’t you bend over her, and turn the leaves, and count the time as you do when Maddy plays; and how does it happen that lately, Jessie is in the way, when you hear Maddy’s lessons. She has no suspicions, but I know she ain’t sent off for nothin’; I know you’d rather be alone with Maddy Clyde than to have anybody present; isn’t it so?” Guy began to wince. There was much truth in what Mrs. Noah had said. He did devise various methods of getting rid of Jessie when Maddy was in his library, but it had never looked to him in just the light it did as when presented by Mrs. Noah, and he doggedly asked what Mrs. Noah would have him do. “First and foremost, then, I’d have you tell Maddy yourself that you are engaged to Lucy Atherstone; second, I’d have you write to Lucy all about it, and if you honestly can, tell her that you only care for Maddy as a friend; third, I’d have you send the girl——” “Not away from Aikenside! I never will!” and Guy sprang to his feet.