Do n't come back for a week at least . '' `` I do not like to leave you in such trouble , Miss Oliver . '' `` Oh , it does n't matter about me -- I have Emily . And there is nothing you could do . Please go at once . Father knows I am talking to you and that will vex him still more . '' Alan , realizing that he could not help her and that his presence only made matters worse , went away perplexedly . The following week was a miserable one for him . His duties were distasteful to him and meeting his people a positive torture . Sometimes Mrs. Danby looked dubiously at him and seemed on the point of saying something -- but never said it . Isabel King watched him when they met , with bold probing eyes . In his abstraction he did not notice this any more than he noticed a certain subtle change which had come over the members of his congregation -- as if a breath of suspicion had blown across them and troubled their confidence and trust . Once Alan would have been keenly and instantly conscious of this slight chill ; now he was not even aware of it . When he ventured to go back to Four Winds he found the Captain on the point of starting off for a cruise in his yacht . He was urbane and friendly , utterly ignoring the incident of Alan 's last visit and regretting that business compelled him to go down the lake . Alan saw him off with small regret and turned joyfully to Lynde , who was walking under the pines with her dogs . She looked pale and tired and her eyes were still troubled , but she smiled proudly and made no reference to what had happened . `` I 'm going to put these flowers on Mother 's grave , '' she said , lifting her slender hands filled with late white roses . `` Mother loved flowers and I always keep them near her when I can . You may come with me if you like . ''
Alan had known XXXXX 's mother was buried under the pines but he had never visited the spot before .
Alan Captain Emily Father King Lynde Mother Oliver torture week