He
wants to enlist, too, but can't because he is only seventeen. Mrs.
Elliott met us as we were walking through the village and could not have
looked more horrified if she caught me walking with the Kaiser himself.
Mrs. Elliott detests the Methodists and all their works. Father says it
is an obsession with her."
About 1st September there was an exodus from Ingleside and the manse.
Faith, Nan, Di and Walter left for Redmond; Carl betook himself to his
Harbour Head school and Shirley was off to Queen's. Rilla was left alone
at Ingleside and would have been very lonely if she had had time to be.
She missed Walter keenly; since their talk in Rainbow Valley they had
grown very near together and Rilla discussed problems with Walter which
she never mentioned to others. But she was so busy with the Junior Reds
and her baby that there was rarely a spare minute for loneliness;
sometimes, after she went to bed, she cried a little in her pillow over
Walter's absence and Jem at Valcartier and Kenneth's unromantic farewell
message, but she was generally asleep before the tears got fairly
started.
"Shall I make arrangements to have the baby sent to Hopetown?" the
doctor asked one day two weeks after the baby's arrival at Ingleside.
For a moment Rilla was tempted to say "Yes." The baby could be sent to
Hopetown--it would be decently looked after--she could have her free
days and untrammelled nights back again.
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