`` But those Douglases all hang together so . If you touch one , you touch all . We ca n't do without them , so much is certain . They pay half the salary . They are not mean , whatever else may be said of them . Norman Douglas used to give a hundred a year long ago before he left . '' `` What did he leave for ? '' asked Anne . `` He declared a member of the session cheated him in a cow deal . He has n't come to church for twenty years . His wife used to come regular while she was alive , poor thing , but he never would let her pay anything , except one red cent every Sunday . She felt dreadfully humiliated . I do n't know that he was any too good a husband to her , though she was never heard to complain . But she always had a cowed look . Norman Douglas did n't get the woman he wanted thirty years ago and the Douglases never liked to put up with second best . '' `` Who was the woman he did want . '' `` Ellen West . They were n't engaged exactly , I believe , but they went about together for two years . And then they just broke off -- nobody ever know why . Just some silly quarrel , I suppose .
And Norman went and married Hester Reese XXXXX his temper had time to cool -- married her just to spite Ellen , I have n't a doubt .
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