Winthrop knew I was meddling with what didn't concern
me."
"Mr. Winthrop is not a severe master. I think he interferes very little
with our household matters."
"But this is different; and please, Miss Selwyn, don't let on to a soul
that I gave you that letter. Mrs. Le Grande said if I didn't take it some
one else would; and it was an easy way to earn a trifle."
"But if there is anything wrong in the matter it is the hardest way in
the world to get money," I said, perplexed at her words.
Linden Lane lay back from Oaklands a mile or more, and led me on a road I
had never traversed before, although I had often planned to take it on
some of my exploring journeys. But it led away from the sea shore, and
that probably was the reason I had hitherto neglected it. There was a
strip of woodland belonging to the Oaklands estate through which a part
of the road lay. There had been a recent fall of snow and this was still
clinging heavily to the trees, especially to the spruce and hemlocks,
bringing strangely to mind the muffled, mysterious figures of the Sisters
of Charity and Nuns, as I used to see them gliding about the streets of
the old world cities. Here and there interspersed with the evergreens
were beech, and maple, and other hardwood growths, with their graceful
leafless branches stretching up like dumb pleading hands toward the
pitiful sky. I grew so interested seeking out specially picturesque
forest growths, and glimpses into the still woodland depths under the
white snow wraith which I might come again to study more closely, and put
on my canvas, that I so far forgot the business of the hour as to find
myself a half hour after the appointment at still some distance from
Linden Lane.
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