RAINBOW VALLEY



CHAPTER I. HOME AGAIN

It was a clear, apple-green evening in May, and Four Winds
Harbour was mirroring back the clouds of the golden west between
its softly dark shores. The sea moaned eerily on the sand-bar,
sorrowful even in spring, but a sly, jovial wind came piping down
the red harbour road along which Miss Cornelia's comfortable,
matronly figure was making its way towards the village of Glen
St. Mary. Miss Cornelia was rightfully Mrs. Marshall Elliott, and
had been Mrs. Marshall Elliott for thirteen years, but even yet
more people referred to her as Miss Cornelia than as Mrs.
Elliott. The old name was dear to her old friends, only one of
them contemptuously dropped it. Susan Baker, the gray and grim
and faithful handmaiden of the Blythe family at Ingleside, never
lost an opportunity of calling her "Mrs. Marshall Elliott," with
the most killing and pointed emphasis, as if to say "You wanted
to be Mrs. and Mrs. you shall be with a vengeance as far as I am
concerned."

Miss Cornelia was going up to Ingleside to see Dr. and Mrs.
Blythe, who were just home from Europe. They had been away for
three months, having left in February to attend a famous medical
congress in London; and certain things, which Miss Cornelia was
anxious to discuss, had taken place in the Glen during their