Now it might seem strange to more social minds that people from a distant
city could come summer after summer to the same spot and yet remain
unknown to their nearest neighbours; but Kenmore was not a social
community. It had all the reserve of its English heritage combined with
the suspicion of its Indian taint, and it took strangers hard. Then,
added to this, the Traverses aroused doubt, for no one, especially
Nathaniel Glenn, could account for a certain big, heavy-browed man who
shared the home life of the Hill Place without any apparent right or
position. For Mrs. Travers, Glenn had managed to conjure up a very actual
distrust. She was too good-looking and free-acting to be sound; and her
misshapen and delicate son was, so the severe man concluded, a curse, in
all probability, for past offences. The youth of Kenmore was straight and
hearty, unless--and here Nathaniel recalled his superstitions--dire
vengeance was wreaked on parents through their offspring.
With no better reason than this, and with the stubbornness he mistook for
strength, Glenn would have nothing to do with his neighbours, four miles
back in the woods, and had forbidden the sale of milk and garden stuff to
them.
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