If he overtook her she would have to walk home with him and she was not going to do that . So she slipped at once behind the maples of the spring , hoping he had not seen her and would pass on . But Norman had seen her and , what was more , was in pursuit of her . He had been wanting for some time to have talk with Rosemary , but she had always , so it seemed , avoided him . Rosemary had never , at any time , liked Norman Douglas very well . His bluster , his temper , his noisy hilarity , had always antagonized her . Long ago she had often wondered how Ellen could possibly be attracted to him . Norman Douglas was perfectly aware of her dislike and he chuckled over it . It never worried Norman if people did not like him . It did not even make him dislike them in return , for he took it as a kind of extorted compliment . He thought Rosemary a fine girl , and he meant to be an excellent , generous brother-in-law to her . But before he could be her brother-in-law he had to have a talk with her , so , having seen her leaving Ingleside as he stood in the doorway of a Glen store , he had straightway plunged into the valley to overtake her . Rosemary was sitting pensively on the maple seat where John Meredith had been sitting on that evening nearly a year ago . The tiny spring shimmered and dimpled under its fringe of ferns . Ruby-red gleams of sunset fell through the arching boughs . A tall clump of perfect asters grew at her side . The little spot was as dreamy and witching and evasive as any retreat of fairies and dryads in ancient forests . Into it Norman Douglas bounced , scattering and annihilating its charm in a moment . His personality seemed to swallow the place up . There was simply nothing there but Norman Douglas , big , red-bearded , complacent .
`` Good evening , '' said XXXXX coldly , standing up . ''
Douglas Ellen Glen Ingleside Meredith Norman Rosemary dryads gleams witching