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“I am not a very patient woman, August,” said Thyra coldly. “I have asked you what you mean, and I want a straight answer. Is Chester down at Tom Blair’s while I have been sitting here, alone, waiting for him?”

August nodded. He saw that it would not be wise to trifle longer with Thyra.

“That he is. I was there before I came here. He and Damaris were sitting in a corner by themselves, and very well-satisfied they seemed to be with each other. Tut, tut, Thyra, don’t take the news so. I thought you knew. It’s no secret that Chester has been going after Damaris ever since she came here. But what then? You can’t tie him to your apron strings forever, woman. He’ll be finding a mate for himself, as he should. Seeing that he’s straight and well-shaped, no doubt Damaris will look with favor on him. Old Martha Blair declares the girl loves him better than her eyes.”

Thyra made a sound like a strangled moan in the middle of August’s speech. She heard the rest of it immovably. When it came to an end she stood and looked down upon him in a way that silenced him.

“You’ve told the news you came to tell, and gloated over it, and now get you gone,” she said slowly.

“Now, Thyra,” he began, but she interrupted him threateningly.

“Get you gone, I say! And you need not bring my mail here any longer. I want no more of your misshapen body and lying tongue!”

August went, but at the door he turned for a parting stab.

“My tongue is not a lying one, Mrs. Carewe. I’ve told you the truth, as all Avonlea knows it. Chester is mad about Damaris Garland. It’s no wonder I thought you knew what all the settlement can see. But you’re such a jealous, odd body, I suppose the boy hid it from you for fear you’d go into a tantrum. As for me, I’ll not forget that you’ve turned me from your door because I chanced to bring you news you’d no fancy for.”

Thyra did not answer him. When the door closed behind him she locked it and blew out the light. Then she threw herself face downward on the sofa and burst into wild tears. Her very soul ached. She wept as tempestuously and unreasoningly as youth weeps, although she was not young. It seemed as if she was afraid to stop weeping lest she should go mad thinking. But, after a time, tears failed her, and she began bitterly to go over, word by word, what August Vorst had said.

That her son should ever cast eyes of love on any girl was something Thyra had never thought about. She would not believe it possible that he should love any one but herself, who loved him so much. And now the possibility invaded her mind as subtly and coldly and remorselessly as a sea-fog stealing landward.

Chester had been born to her at an age when most women are letting their children slip from them into the world, with some natural tears and heartaches, but content to let them go, after enjoying their sweetest years. Thyra’s late-come motherhood was all the more intense and passionate because of its very lateness. She had been very ill when her son was born, and had lain helpless for long weeks, during which other women had tended her baby for her. She had never been able to forgive them for this.

Her husband had died before Chester was a year old. She had laid their son in his dying arms and received him back again with a last benediction. To Thyra that moment had something of a sacrament in it. It was as if the child had been doubly given to her, with a right to him solely that nothing could take away or transcend.