He was popular in Racicot , for he mingled freely with the sailors and fishermen . Moreover , Dalveigh was an excellent market for fresh mackerel . Nathan Shelley , in his favourite corner behind the stove , sat lurching forward with his hands on his knees . He had laid aside his pipe out of deference to Mrs. Cameron , and it was hard for him to think without it . He wished his wife would go to work ; it seemed uncanny to see her idle . She had sat idle only once that he remembered -- the day they had brought Ned Shelley in , dank and dripping , after the August storm ten years before . Mrs. Shelley sat by the crooked , small-paned window and looked out down the harbour . The coat she had been patching for her husband when the Camerons came still lay in her lap , and she had folded her hands upon it . She was a big woman , slow of speech and manner , with a placid , handsome face -- a face that had not visibly stirred even when she had heard the Camerons ' proposition . They wanted Nora -- these rich people who had so much in life wanted the blossom of girlhood that had never bloomed for them . John Cameron pleaded his cause well . `` We will look on her as our own , '' he said at last . `` We have grown to love her this summer . She is beautiful and clever -- she has a right to more than Racicot can give her . You have other children -- we are childless . And we do not take her from you utterly . You will see her every summer when we come to Dalveigh . '' `` It wo n't be the same thing quite , '' said Nathan Shelley drily . `` She 'll belong to your life then -- not ours . And no matter how many young ones folks has , they do n't want to lose none of 'em .
But I dunno XXXXX we ought to let our feelings stand in Nora 's light .
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