She and Babbie might have to leave Orham, might have to go out of his life forever.
No wonder that, as the days passed, and Gabe Bearse's comments and those of Captain Eri Hedge were echoed and reasserted by the majority of Orham tongues, Jed Winslow's worry and foreboding increased.

He watched Charlie Phillips go whistling out of the yard after supper, and sighed as he saw him turn up the road in the direction of the Hunniwell home.

He watched Maud's face when he met her and, although the young lady was in better spirits and prettier than he had ever seen her, these very facts made him miserable, because he accepted them as proofs that the situation was as he feared.

He watched Ruth's face also and there, too, he saw, or fancied that he saw, a growing anxiety.

She had been very well; her spirits, like Maud's, had been light; she had seemed younger and so much happier than when he and she first met.