Quite irrespective of his wealth, Martin, himself, took the village by
storm. The orphans adopted him as their very own, and moved over in a
body to the doctor's house whenever he was staying there. The men in
the mill stopped work the moment he appeared, and all the women in the
place, from Susan Winters down, fell in love with him. Every eye
watched him admiringly as he moved about, here and there, during those
two weeks. Folks said you could hardly tell whether he thought most of
Arabella or the doctor or old John McIntyre. Certainly he spent much
of his time with the dark watchman, and it was beautiful to see the
light his presence brought to John McIntyre's deep eyes. But he did
not by any means neglect Arabella. Two or three times a day he would
come rollicking up from the doctor's house, loudly chanting the praises
of the "brave Canajen byes" who had met a watery grave; would swing
open Miss Arabella's little gate with a force that nearly wrenched it
from its hinges, and after teasing Polly into saying all the naughty
things her mistress had hoped she had forgotten, he would bid little
Annie Laurie put on the faded lilac gown he admired so much, and they
would go off for a stroll through the village, the admiration of every
one in the place. They always walked down along the green-and-gold
floor of Treasure Valley, because Martin said it reminded him of home;
and always, before they returned, they went up the willow path to the
mill, or down to the shanty at the Drowned Lands, for a visit to John
McIntyre.