Anne O'Hagan

“ No trolley-line had spoiled its elms or lined it with “easily accessible” workmen's cottages. The old houses stood, each in its own acre or two, as they had done in his boyhood. Foley's heart beat a little faster as he glanced ahead. Nora and Durgan had taken the old place when Pat and Mary Ann Kehoe had gone away. ”

“ THE clear September afternoon had begun to decline toward evening when Foley emerged from the station which had engulf him more than twenty years before. With the relieved sense of the man whose destiny is at last decided he stood in the once familiar place. ”

“ But though all the girls in Fairhaven had fluttered dove-like before his counter and had divided their admiration between his curly hair, his bold glances, and the printed lawns he showed them, he had not cared for the position in Popham's. It had been no job for a man of his parts—of his shoulders, of his chest. Besides, Popham had expected him to attend to the furnace, to open the store before the day was well awake, and to keep it open until the last light in the village was quenched in darkness. ”

“ The questioner's voice wavered between awe and unbelief. Unbelief triumphed. “I don't believe a word you say, Nonie Durgan. You're the poorest people on the Lane—my mother says you are. A general! An' your mother goes out by the day.” ”

“ An' there'll not be so many to cheat her when it's known she has a man around to look out for her. As for goin' back to the army an' not burdenin' her—I'll not burden her, an' I'm too old for the army, anyway. ”