The only course that Mauney could consider was to wait for events. If Lee recovered, there would no longer be any obstacle in the path that led him to Freda. If he died, the way was even clearer. But it might be months before either fate, and, in the meantime, Mauney determined to be towards Freda friendly at most.
He had not been home many days when a letter of acceptance came from the Lockwood Board of Education, and another letter from the collegiate principal, Henry Dover, requesting an early interview. He drove to town in William’s motor-car and spent an hour with Dover at the school, gaining some idea of his work, which was to begin in September.
Then he paid a call at MacDowell’s, which he was not soon to forget. Freda’s mother answered the door and, as she heard his name, favored him with a long, rude, critical stare that gradually shaded into a supercilious smile as she turned away without a word, leaving him standing in the doorway. Freda chanced to be in the library, close enough apparently to grasp the situation, for she came out at once, speaking calmly, to be sure, but with cheeks a flaming crimson. Mauney, to whom such an encounter was a new experience, was, for a time, too stunned to talk much.
“I’ve been expecting you for days,” Freda said, leading him to the farther verandah and arranging chairs. “Sit down and rest your weary bones, won’t you? Tell me all about what you’ve been doing. Aren’t you going to talk?”
“Yes,” he replied slowly, “I expect to say a few words; but may I enquire if it was your mother who came to the door?”
“Oh, please don’t mind her, Mauney,” said Freda, awkwardly. “You see, mother is quite unreasonable about some things. I’ll explain that all, some day. Tell me—any word about the school?”
While he was talking she sat wondering what difference she noticed in him. He had altered somehow. The smile of his eyes was gone. There was something stubbornly immovable about his big body as he sat with legs crossed and arms folded on his chest, and his eyes only glanced at her before they turned away sadly, as she thought.
“Freda,” he said after a pause. “I can’t place you in this house. There’s some mistake.”