CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH.
OLD ENEMIES.
"Kindness nobler ever than revenge."
If things came right in the Forest, it was not through effort. One had simply to surrender to its spell, to breathe in the beauty and the calm, to live there, as the president had said.
Celia's thoughts were interrupted by Sally's hurried entrance.
"Laws a mercy! Miss Celia, honey, Mrs. Whittredge's in the parlor. I come mighty nigh askin' her what she wanted in dis yere house."
Celia looked up in astonishment. Mrs. Whittredge! What could it mean? "And she asked for me?" she repeated.
"I done tol' her your mamma was sick, but she 'lowed 'twas you she wanted."
Celia recovered herself. "Very well, Sally," she said, but it was with a beating heart she walked the length of the hall. Her enemy! What did it mean?
Mrs. Whittredge, her heavy veil thrown back a little, stood beside the table in the centre of the room.