The minister drove slowly, and
they could always see Mrs. Jim Sloane's blue plaid shawl ahead.
When they reached the Caleb Thayer house, Barney stopped and William
followed on alone after the sleigh.
Barney turned into the yard, and his father was standing in the barn
door, looking out.
"Tell mother she's married," Barney sang out, hoarsely. Then he went
back to the road, and home to his own house.
Chapter XI
Barney went to see Rebecca the next day, but the minister's wife came
to the door and would not admit him. She puckered her lips painfully,
and a blush shot over her face and little thin throat as she stood
there before him. "I guess you had better not come in," said she,
nervously. "I guess you had better wait until Mrs. Berry gets settled
in her house. Mr. Berry is going to hire the old Bennett place. I
guess it would be pleasanter."
Barney turned away, blushing also as he stammered an assent. Always
keenly alive to the shame of the matter, it seemed as if his sense of
it were for the moment intensified. The minister's wife's whole
nature seemed turned into a broadside of mirrors towards Rebecca's
shame and misery, and it was as if the reflection was multiplied in
Barney as he looked at her.
Still, he could not take the shame to his own nature as she could,
being a woman. He looked back furtively at the house as he went down
the road, thinking he might catch a glimpse of poor Rebecca at the
window.
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