CHAPTER X



A LATE VISITOR


These rumors never reached the doctor. No scandalmonger
ever dared talk gossip to him. When he
first began to practise among the people of Warehold,
and some garrulous old dame would seek to enrich
his visit by tittle-tattle about her neighbors, she had
never tried it a second time. Doctor John of Barnegat
either received the news in silence or answered
it with some pleasantry; even Ann Gossaway held
her peace whenever the doctor had to be called in to
prescribe for her oversensitive throat.

He was aware that Jane had laid herself open to
criticism in bringing home a child about which she
had made no explanation, but he never spoke of it nor
allowed anyone to say so to him. He would have
been much happier, of course, if she had given him
her confidence in this as she had in many other
matters affecting her life; but he accepted her silence
as part of her whole attitude toward him. Knowing
her as he did, he was convinced that her sole incentive
was one of loving kindness, both for the child
and for the poor mother whose sin or whose poverty