Aunt Delia McCormick surprised every one by aligning herself with this latter minority.

She declared, after her first call, that Miss Caroline was "a dear"; and after the second call, that she was "a poor dear," and she forthwith became of service to the newcomer in a thousand ways known only to the masonry of housekeeping.
And since none of the ladies, for one reason or another, had found a way to say those things that Mrs.Lansdale sorely needed to hear, it was agreed among them that the minister must say them.
"The minister" in Little Arcady meant him of the Methodist church, the two other clergymen being so young and unimportant as to need identification by name.
Of the official and inspired visit of this good man to Miss Caroline, the version that reached the public was one thing: its secret and true history was another.

The latter has never been told until now.

It was known abroad only that the minister had called on a warm afternoon in July; that Miss Caroline had received him out of doors, on the shaded east side of the house, where the heat had driven her to await a cooling breeze from the river.

One of the dingy rugs had been spread upon the grass close to the lilac clump, and by an unfashionable little table Miss Caroline sat, in a chair sadly out of date, reading of Childe Harold.