Aikenside | Page 8

beautiful locks. Would Dr. Holbrook
think of her age? Suppose he should ask it. But no, he wouldn't. If Mr.
Green thought her old enough, surely it was not a matter with which the
doctor need trouble himself; and, somewhat at ease on that point,
Madeline donned her longest frock, and, standing in a chair, tried to
discover how much of her pantalets was visible.
"I could see splendidly in Mr. Remington's mirrors," she said to herself,
with a half sigh of regret that her lot had not been cast in some such
place as Aikenside, instead of there beneath the hill in that wee bit of a
cottage, whose rear slanted back until it almost touched the ground.
"After all, I guess I'm happier here," she thought. "Everybody likes me,
while if I were Mr. Guy's sister and lived at Aikenside, I might be
proud and wicked, and--"
She did not finish the sentence, but somehow the story of Dives and

Lazarus, read by her grandfather that morning, recurred to her mind,
and feeling how much rather she would rest in Abraham's bosom than
share the fate of him who once was clothed in purple and fine linen she
pinned on her little neat plaid shawl, and, tying the blue ribbons of her
coarse straw hat, glanced once more at the formidable cube root, and
then hurried down to where her grandfather and old Sorrel wore
waiting for her.
"I shall be so happy when I come back, because it will then be over,
just like having a tooth out, you know," she said to her grandmother,
who bent down for the good-by kiss without which Maddy never left
her. "Now, grandpa, drive on; I was to be there at three," and chirruping
herself to Sorrel, the impatient Madge went riding from the cottage
door, chatting cheerily until the village of Devonshire was reached;
then, with a farewell to her grandfather, who never dreamed that the
man whom he was seeking was so near, she tripped up the flagging
walk, and, as we have seen, soon stood in the presence of not only Dr.
Holbrook, but also of Guy Remington.
Poor, poor little Madge!
CHAPTER III.
THE EXAMINATION.
It was Guy who received her, Guy who pointed to a chair, Guy who
seemed perfectly at home, and, naturally enough, she took him for Dr.
Holbrook, wondering who the other black-haired man could be, and if
he meant to stay in there all the while. It would be very dreadful if he
did, and in her agitation and excitement the cube root was in danger of
being altogether forgotten. Half guessing the cause of her uneasiness,
and feeling more averse than ever to taking part in the matter, the
doctor, after a hasty survey of her person, withdrew into the
background, and sat where he could not be seen. This brought the short
dress into full view, together with the dainty little foot, nervously
beating the floor.
"She's very young," he thought; "too young, by far," and Maddy's

chances of success were beginning to decline even before a word had
been spoken.
How terribly still it was for the time, during which telegraphic
communications were silently passing between Guy and the doctor, the
latter shaking his dead decidedly, while the former insisted that he
should do his duty. Madeline could almost hear the beatings of her
heart, and only by counting and recounting the poplar trees growing
across the street could she keep back the tears. What was he waiting for,
she wondered, and, at last, summoning all her courage, she lifted her
great brown eyes to Guy, and said, pleadingly:
"Would you be so kind, sir, as to begin?"
"Yes, certainly," and electrified by that young, bird-like voice, the
sweetest save one he had ever heard, Guy knocked down from the pile
of books the only one at all appropriate to the occasion, the others
being as far beyond what was taught in the district schools as his
classical education was beyond Madeline's common one.
Remembering that the teacher of whom he had once been for a week a
pupil, in the town of Framingham, had commenced operations by
sharpening a lead pencil, so he now sharpened a similar one,
determining as far as he could to follow that teacher's example. Maddy
counted every fragment as it fell upon the floor, wishing so much that
he would commence, and fancying that it would not be half so bad to
have him approach her with some one of those terrible dental
instruments lying before her, as it was to sit and wait as she was
waiting. Had Guy Remington reflected a little, he would never have
consented to do the doctor's work; but, unaccustomed to country usages,
especially those pertaining to schools