Rite Aid has announced plans to close 13 additional stores after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

Rite Aids to close NJ, NY locations, court docs say

This file photo shows a store sign on a Rite Aid in Pittsburgh on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)AP · Another Rite Aid store in Dauphin County is closing

Rite Aid to close Dauphin County store, directs pharmacy customers to nearby CVS - pennlive.com

Rite Aid to close 13 additional locations in 5 states, court docs say

As Rite Aid continues to make its way through its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, court filings reveal that 13 more stores are set to close, including 3 in Ohio.

Rite Aid to close 13 more stores, including 3 in Ohio: See which stores are shuttering

The couple who owns Santa Cruz Power Fitness have found that their members often belong to several gyms as they seek different amenities. In swooping into the Midtown spot vacated by Rite Aid, they&#x27;re hoping to consolidate a variety of clients into one state-of-the-art spot.

Santa Cruz Power Fitness owners aim to transform former Rite Aid into state-of-art fitness facility - Lookout Santa Cruz

Eight Rite-Aid stores will soon close in Western New York months after the company filed for Bankruptcy.

Rite-Aid closures in Western New York

Drug store chain Rite Aid Corp. put off a key court hearing in order to complete a deal that would cut $2 billion in debt, resolve lawsuits related to opioid prescriptions and end the company’s six-month-old bankruptcy.

Rite Aid (RADCQ) Delays Key Bankruptcy Hearing on Deal to Cut $2 Billion in Debt - Bloomberg

The pharmaceutical retailer has announced the closing of more than 400 stores since it filed for bankruptcy in October.

Rite Aid to close 17 more stores, including 6 in Pa. - pennlive.com

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — A week before a judge could approve bankrupt Rite Aid’s restructuring plan, a group of creditors complained the company is paying its CEO too much to steer the company through the Chapter 11 process. Jeffrey Stein, the company’s chief executive officer and chief ...

Rite Aid creditors complain of ‘excessive’ CEO pay ahead of Monday reorganization hearing | ABC27

Rite Aid will be shuttering two more locations in the Pittsburgh area.

2 more Pittsburgh-area Rite Aid locations closing

Get the most recent info and news about Rite Aid on HackerNoon, where 10k+ technologists publish stories for 4M+ monthly readers.

Rite Aid Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates a chain of retail drugstores in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Retail Pharmacy and Pharmacy Services. The Retail Pharmacy segment sells prescription drugs and an assortment of other merchandise, including over-the-counter medications, health and beauty aids, personal care items, cosmetics, household items, food and beverages, greeting cards, seasonal merchandise, and other every day and convenience products. It also operates retail clinics that provide treatment for common conditions; and provides preventative services, such as screenings, medical tests, immunizations, and basic physical exams. In addition, this segment offers healthcare coaching and disease management services. The Pharmacy Services segment provides pharmacy benefit management (PBM) services and a range of pharmacy-related services. This segment also performs prescription adjudication services for other PBMs; and offers integrated mail-order and specialty pharmacy services, as well as drug benefits under the federal government's Medicare Part D program. As of April 21, 2020, the company operated approximately 2,400 retail pharmacy locations in 18 states. Rite Aid Corporation was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

Rite Aid

[Photo by on ] freestocks.org Unsplash CVS is offering to pay $66 billion for Aetna — a blending that could turn local drugstores into health insurers. Assessing the impacts of the recent rash of mergers and takeovers in the healthcare field. The mega-marketplace revolution is in full swing across all industries right now. Amazon shelled out $13.7 billion for Whole Foods in an effort to gain a stronger foothold in the grocery industry, AT&T wants to buy Time Warner for $85 billion, UnitedHealth Group is acquiring DaVita Medical Group and the latter’s 300 doctors’ clinics for $4.9 billion, and CVS is offering to pay $66 billion for Aetna — a blending that could turn local drugstores into health insurers. These deals collectively paint a picture of a business environment that’s ripe for consolidation and ready to merge. Of particular interest to the healthcare industry — already grappling with changes and turmoil on many different fronts — the proposed CVS-Aetna deal could find the acquirer creating a unified, seamless benefits offering to customers (such as large employers). “The combined behemoth would also have a large and diversified store of health data, an important asset in today’s competitive environment,” the reports, noting that Amazon’s intention to “move into the pharmacy business helped spur CVS’ move on Aetna.” Wall Street Journal From this recent spate of mega-deals, the entities involved expect benefits like improved economies of scale (the “power of one” versus various, scattered entities), better profits (which, in turn, can fund R&D and other initiatives); and new faces on the newly-combined firm’s management and leadership teams. The disadvantages include, but aren’t limited to, difficulties coordinating and communicating across the combined entity and the length of time it takes to physically “merge” the two companies into a single, efficient organization. The question is, how will these combined superpowers impact their customers and their respective industries as a whole? Here are four ways things could play out: It could spawn a groundswell of mega-mergers and, subsequently, less competition. If the merger goes through, it could trigger another wave of takeovers. In fact, analysts feel it could cause a wave of industry consolidation, with Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) and Rite-Aid (RAD) currently seeking mergers or acquisitions with other major health insurers. This could give a smaller concentration of companies a bigger stronghold on the nation’s healthcare industry. Consumer options could be reduced and customers could be subjected to higher co-pays (i.e., if they select a non-CVS drugstore to fill an Aeta plan prescription). Healthcare is a fundamental service that’s comparable to cable, electricity, and telephones, all of which have been consolidated under mega brands and via mega-mergers. And while healthcare is a highly-regulated industry, the idea of only having one drugstore or one insurance provider to choose from could push prices up while whittling down choices. Better economies of scale could be in sight for healthcare insurers and other providers. Under pressure to address losses suffered from former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, and then navigate the murky waters of Obamacare eradication, major health insurers have been grappling with reductions in program offerings. Health care mergers and acquisitions have been rampant over the last few years, making the savings associated with economies of scale that much more critical as margins tighten. In the CVS-Aetna deal, for example, the combined entity would also have more firepower against a giant e-tailer like Amazon — an advantage that companies across many industries are trying to figure out right now. In fact, the “Amazon Effect” is one of the drivers of healthcare mergers and the quest to provide a single point of service and information for customers. This, in turn, helps to reduce the cost of running the healthcare supply chain, the cost of customer acquisition, and the cost of healthcare delivery. Amazon is already leveraging these advantages in numerous marketplaces, and healthcare firms want to be able to replicate that in their own industry. Premiums may not get any lower. Seeking relief from rising insurance and healthcare bills, consumers are waiting for a miracle to come and lower their bills. The CVS-Aetna deal probably isn’t their knight in shining armor. In fact, there’s been no real impact on lowering premiums among beneficiaries due to health insurance mergers, according to a study. In fact, statistics show that less competition in the health payer market can result in higher monthly premiums for beneficiaries, and particularly for those in employer-sponsored, commercial health plans. But just because you merge an insurance company with the drugstore doesn’t mean consumers will be privy to lower prices. At a basic level, premiums really only go down if fewer people visit the doctor or hospital, and a mega-merger isn’t going to make that happen. Harvard Business Review Organizations may stop innovating. When was the last time your cable company introduced a groundbreaking, innovative product? Or your electric company rolled out a pioneering new service? The answer is probably “never,” and that’s because competition spawns innovation. In the absence of a competitor knocking on your customers’ doors, trying to sell them a newer, better, and more efficient product or service, the drive to innovate dwindles to zero. This could happen if we start to see more healthcare companies merging and creating less competition for themselves. Anytime you have a captive consumer, companies don’t think too hard about innovation. As more companies look to merge with one another in an effort to gain operational savings, reduce overhead, eliminate redundancies, and gain a foothold in new verticals, the underlying tenets of healthcare probably won’t change much — namely because transformation can’t happen unless we take a holistic view of the problem and fix all of the pain points within that larger picture. Because all of the systems that make up the bigger healthcare picture are interdependent, you can’t just fix one part and expect transformation to occur. In the end, preventative medicine is what’s going to reduce the cost of healthcare, and that’s both an individual and a social responsibility. Copyright © 2017 by Faisal Hoque. All rights reserved. I am an . Founder of and other companies. Shadoka enables aspirations to lead, innovate, and transform. Shadoka’s accelerators and solutions bring together the management frameworks, digital platforms, and thought leadership to enable innovation, transformation, entrepreneurship, growth and social impact. entrepreneur and author SHADOKA Author of “ ” (McGraw Hill) and “ ” (Motivational Press). Follow me on Twitter . Everything Connects — How to Transform and Lead in the Age of Creativity, Innovation and Sustainability Survive to Thrive: 27 Practices of Resilient Entrepreneurs, Innovators, and Leaders Faisal Hoque Use the Everything Connects leadership app and Suvvive to Thrive resiliancy app for free.

The Rise of the Healthcare Mega-Marketplaces: What Does It Mean For You?

The New York Times Company v. OpenAI Update Court Filing, retrieved on February 26, 2024 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This part is 1 of 15. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here I. INTRODUCTION The artificial intelligence (AI) tool known as ChatGPT is many things: a revolutionary technology with the potential to augment human capabilities, fostering our own productivity and efficiency;[1] an accelerator for scientific and medical breakthroughs;[2] a mechanism for making existing technologies accessible to more people;[3] an aid to help the visually impaired navigate the world;[4] a creative tool that can write sonnets, limericks, and haikus;[5] and a computational engine that reasonable estimates posit may add trillions of dollars of growth across the global economy.[6] Contrary to the allegations in the Complaint, however, ChatGPT is not in any way a substitute for a subscription to The New York Times. In the real world, people do not use ChatGPT or any other OpenAI product for that purpose. Nor could they. In the ordinary course, one cannot use ChatGPT to serve up Times articles at will. The Times has sought to paint a different picture. Its lawsuit alleges that OpenAI has imperiled the very enterprise of journalism, illustrating the point with 100 examples in which some version of OpenAI’s GPT-4 model supposedly generated several paragraphs of Times content as outputs in response to user prompts. See Dkt. 1-68 (Exhibit J). The allegations in the Times’s Complaint do not meet its famously rigorous journalistic standards.[7] The truth, which will come out in the course of this case, is that the Times paid someone to hack OpenAI’s products. It took them tens of thousands of attempts to generate the highly anomalous results that make up Exhibit J to the Complaint. They were able to do so only by targeting and exploiting a bug (which OpenAI has committed to addressing) by using deceptive prompts that blatantly violate OpenAI’s terms of use.[8] And even then, they had to feed the tool portions of the very articles they sought to elicit verbatim passages of, virtually all of which already appear on multiple public websites. Normal people do not use OpenAI’s products in this way.[9] Journalism has undergone many changes in the digital age, and may well undergo more with the advent of AI. OpenAI has established important partnerships with many leaders in the news industry—from large enterprises like the Associated Press and Axel Springer to the dozens of smaller and local outlets associated with the American Journalism Project—to creatively explore and implement AI solutions that assist investigative reporting, create enhanced reader experiences, and improve business operations. The Times’s suggestion that the contrived attacks of its hired gun show that the Fourth Estate is somehow imperiled by this technology is pure fiction. So too is its implication that the public en masse might mimic its agent’s aberrant activity. There is a genuinely important issue at the heart of this lawsuit—critical not just to OpenAI, but also to countless start-ups and other companies innovating in this space—that is being litigated both here and in over a dozen other cases around the country (including in this Court): whether it is fair use under copyright law to use publicly accessible content to train generative AI models to learn about language, grammar, and syntax, and to understand the facts that constitute humans’ collective knowledge. OpenAI and the other defendants in these lawsuits will ultimately prevail because no one—not even the New York Times—gets to monopolize facts[10] or the rules of language.[11] For good reason, there is a long history of precedent holding that it is perfectly lawful to use copyrighted content as part of a technological process that (as here) results in the creation of new, different, and innovative products.[12] Established copyright doctrine will dictate that the Times cannot prevent AI models from acquiring knowledge about facts, any more than another news organization can prevent the Times itself from re-reporting stories it had no role in investigating.[13] As Justice Brandeis explained more than 100 years ago: “The general rule of law is, that the noblest of human productions—knowledge, truths ascertained, conceptions, and ideas—become, after voluntary communication to others, free as the air to common use.”[14] All of that said, even assuming (counterfactually) the truth of what the lawsuit alleges, several of the theories in the Complaint are not viable, even as pleaded. This Motion asks the Court to trim those at the outset to focus the litigation on the core issues that really matter. In short: The direct copyright infringement claim asserts liability in part from conduct that is timebarred because it occurred more than three years ago. The contributory infringement claim would ascribe liability to OpenAI based on generalized knowledge of third-party infringement, rather than actual knowledge of specific infringements, which the law requires. The claim for violations of 17 U.S.C. § 1202 (the “DMCA”) fails for the reasons embraced by every other court to consider indistinguishable claims against generative AI models: the DMCA simply does not address the conduct to which the Times seeks to ascribe liability. And the claim for state common law misappropriation is preempted by the federal Copyright Act. (1) (2) (3) (4) OpenAI respectfully seeks an order dismissing these legally infirm portions of the Complaint, so that the parties can properly and efficiently litigate the balance. Continue Reading . Here [1] Louis Hyman, It’s Not the End of Work. It’s the End of Boring Work, N.Y. Times (Apr. 22, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/22/opinion/jobs-ai-chatgpt.html. [2] Microsoft, The Impact of Large Language Models on Scientific Discovery: a Preliminary Study Using GPT-4 (Dec. 8, 2023), https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.07361.pdf (deployments in “biology and materials design” and “drug discovery”). [3] Ran Ronen, How Generative AI Tools Like ChatGPT Can Revolutionize Web Accessibility, VentureBeat (July 8, 2023), https://venturebeat.com/ai/how-generative-ai-tools-like-chatgpt-can-revolutionize-web-accessibility/. [4] Sheena Vasani, Be My Eyes AI Offers GPT-4-Powered Support for Blind Microsoft Customers, Verge (Nov. 15, 2023), https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/15/23962709/microsoft-blind-users-open-ai-chatgpt-4-be-my-eyes. [5] Adam Gross, I Asked ChatGPT AI to Write a Sonnet, LinkedIn (Mar. 2023), https:// www.linkedin.com/posts/grossadam_i-asked-chatgpt-ai-to-write-a-sonnet-in-iambic-activity-040728019300229120- ZBNa/; Zetolgam, The Chatbot Limerick Writer, AllPoetry (Dec. 2022) https://allpoetry.com/poem/16903411-TheChatbot-Limerick-Writer-by-Zetolgam; Uday Dandavate, How I Used ChatGPT to Write Haiku, Medium (Sept. 2, 2023), https://uday-dandavate.medium.com/how-i-used-chatgpt-to-write-haiku-5904ee96360d. [6] McKinsey & Company, The Economic Potential of Generative AI: The Next Productivity Frontier (June 14, 2023), https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-economic-potential-of-generative-ai-thenext-productivity-frontier (“generative AI could add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion annually” to the global economy); see also Goldman Sachs, Generative AI Could Raise Global GDP by 7% (Apr. 5, 2023), https://www.goldmansachs.com/intelligence/pages/generative-ai-could-raise-global-gdp-by-7-percent.html. [7] Cf. N.Y. Times, Ethical Journalism: A Handbook, https://www.nytimes.com/editorial-standards/ethicaljournalism.html#introductionAndPurpose (last accessed Feb. 25, 2024) (“we tell our readers the complete, unvarnished truth as best we can learn it”; “Staff members…may not commit illegal acts of any sort.”). [8] OpenAI, Terms of Use § 2(c), https://openai.com/policies/mar-2023-terms (prohibiting use to “infringe[]” others’ “rights” or “extract data”); Hesse v. Godiva Chocolatier, Inc., 463 F. Supp. 3d 453, 463 (S.D.N.Y. 2020) (courts may take “judicial notice of information publicly announced on a party’s website” if “authenticity is not in dispute”). [9] Francesca Paris & Larry Buchanan, 35 Ways Real People Are Using A.I. Right Now, N.Y. Times (Apr. 14, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/14/upshot/up-ai-uses.html (people use ChatGPT to “[w]rite a [] speech,” “[s]kim dozens of academic articles,” “[a]ppeal an insurance denial,” and “[c]reate new proteins in minutes”). [10] See, e.g., Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99, 103 (1879) (“The very object of publishing a book … is to communicate to the world the useful knowledge which it contains. But this object would be frustrated if the knowledge could not be used without incurring guilt of piracy of the book.”); Hoehling v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 618 F.2d 972, 979 (2d Cir. 1980) (“[F]actual information is in the public domain.”). [11] See 17 U.S.C. 102(b); Clanton v. UMG Recordings, Inc., 556 F. Supp. 3d 322, 332 (S.D.N.Y. 2021) (“ordinary building blocks of the English language” not protectable); Med. Educ. Dev. Servs. v. Reed Elsevier Grp., PLC, No. 05-cv-8665, 2008 WL 4449412, at *6 (S.D.N.Y. Sep. 30, 2008) (no copyright for “concepts such as rules of punctuation, analogies, vocabulary or other fundamental elements of English composition”). [12] See, e.g., Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust, 755 F.3d 87 (2d Cir. 2014) (fair use to create “digital copies of more than ten million [books]” for search tool); Authors Guild v. Google, Inc. (Google Books), 804 F.3d 202 (2d Cir. 2015) (fair use to scan millions of copyrighted books to create novel tool); Google LLC v. Oracle Am., Inc., 141 S. Ct. 1183 (2021) (fair use to replicate copyrighted software programming interfaces to create a new mobile platform). [13] See Nicholas Lemann, The Panama Papers and the Monster Stories of the Future, New Yorker (Apr. 14, 2016) https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-panama-papers-and-the-monster-stories-of-the-future (noting the Times’s refusal to participate in consortium that broke “Panama Papers” story); Michael S. Schmidt & Steven Lee Myers, Panama Law Firm’s Leaked Files Detail Offshore Accounts Tied to World Leaders, N.Y. Times (Apr. 3, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/04/us/politics/leaked-documents-offshore-accounts-putin.html. [14] Int’l News Serv. v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215, 250 (1918) (Brandeis, J., dissenting). About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on February 26, 2024, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. fingfx.thomsonreuters.com

NYT Hired Hackers to Game ChatGPT Into Giving Evidence For Its Lawsuits Against OpenAI

ADDENDA TO VOL. I.

Psychoanalysis is not only scientific

THE SONG OF THE MOTH

The last two exorcisms

Rainbow Valley by L. M. Montgomery, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE IMPOSSIBLE WORD CHAPTER XXI. THE IMPOSSIBLE WORD John Meredith walked meditatively through the clear crispness of a winter night in Rainbow Valley. The hills beyond glistened with the chill splendid lustre of moonlight on snow. Every little fir tree in the long valley sang its own wild song to the harp of wind and frost. His children and the Blythe lads and lasses were coasting down the eastern slope and whizzing over the glassy pond. They were having a glorious time and their gay voices and gayer laughter echoed up and down the valley, dying away in elfin cadences among the trees. On the right the lights of Ingleside gleamed through the maple grove with the genial lure and invitation which seems always to glow in the beacons of a home where we know there is love and good-cheer and a welcome for all kin, whether of flesh or spirit. Mr. Meredith liked very well on occasion to spend an evening arguing with the doctor by the drift wood fire, where the famous china dogs of Ingleside kept ceaseless watch and ward, as became deities of the hearth, but to-night he did not look that way. Far on the western hill gleamed a paler but more alluring star. Mr. Meredith was on his way to see Rosemary West, and he meant to tell her something which had been slowly blossoming in his heart since their first meeting and had sprung into full flower on the evening when Faith had so warmly voiced her admiration for Rosemary. He had come to realize that he had learned to care for Rosemary. Not as he had cared for Cecilia, of course. That was entirely different. That love of romance and dream and glamour could never, he thought, return. But Rosemary was beautiful and sweet and dear—very dear. She was the best of companions. He was happier in her company than he had ever expected to be again. She would be an ideal mistress for his home, a good mother to his children. During the years of his widowhood Mr. Meredith had received innumerable hints from brother members of Presbytery and from many parishioners who could not be suspected of any ulterior motive, as well as from some who could, that he ought to marry again: But these hints never made any impression on him. It was commonly thought he was never aware of them. But he was quite acutely aware of them. And in his own occasional visitations of common sense he knew that the common sensible thing for him to do was to marry. But common sense was not the strong point of John Meredith, and to choose out, deliberately and cold-bloodedly, some “suitable” woman, as one might choose a housekeeper or a business partner, was something he was quite incapable of doing. How he hated that word “suitable.” It reminded him so strongly of James Perry. “A suit able woman of suit able age,” that unctuous brother of the cloth had said, in his far from subtle hint. For the moment John Meredith had had a perfectly unbelievable desire to rush madly away and propose marriage to the youngest, most unsuitable woman it was possible to discover. Mrs. Marshall Elliott was his good friend and he liked her. But when she had bluntly told him he should marry again he felt as if she had torn away the veil that hung before some sacred shrine of his innermost life, and he had been more or less afraid of her ever since. He knew there were women in his congregation “of suitable age” who would marry him quite readily. That fact had seeped through all his abstraction very early in his ministry in Glen St. Mary. They were good, substantial, uninteresting women, one or two fairly comely, the others not exactly so and John Meredith would as soon have thought of marrying any one of them as of hanging himself. He had some ideals to which no seeming necessity could make him false. He could ask no woman to fill Cecilia’s place in his home unless he could offer her at least some of the affection and homage he had given to his girlish bride. And where, in his limited feminine acquaintance, was such a woman to be found? Rosemary West had come into his life on that autumn evening bringing with her an atmosphere in which his spirit recognized native air. Across the gulf of strangerhood they clasped hands of friendship. He knew her better in that ten minutes by the hidden spring than he knew Emmeline Drew or Elizabeth Kirk or Amy Annetta Douglas in a year, or could know them, in a century. He had fled to her for comfort when Mrs. Alec Davis had outraged his mind and soul and had found it. Since then he had gone often to the house on the hill, slipping through the shadowy paths of night in Rainbow Valley so astutely that Glen gossip could never be absolutely certain that he did go to see Rosemary West. Once or twice he had been caught in the West living room by other visitors; that was all the Ladies’ Aid had to go by. But when Elizabeth Kirk heard it she put away a secret hope she had allowed herself to cherish, without a change of expression on her kind plain face, and Emmeline Drew resolved that the next time she saw a certain old bachelor of Lowbridge she would not snub him as she had done at a previous meeting. Of course, if Rosemary West was out to catch the minister she would catch him; she looked younger than she was and men thought her pretty; besides, the West girls had money! “It is to be hoped that he won’t be so absent-minded as to propose to Ellen by mistake,” was the only malicious thing she allowed herself to say to a sympathetic sister Drew. Emmeline bore no further grudge towards Rosemary. When all was said and done, an unencumbered bachelor was far better than a widower with four children. It had been only the glamour of the manse that had temporarily blinded Emmeline’s eyes to the better part. A sled with three shrieking occupants sped past Mr. Meredith to the pond. Faith’s long curls streamed in the wind and her laughter rang above that of the others. John Meredith looked after them kindly and longingly. He was glad that his children had such chums as the Blythes—glad that they had so wise and gay and tender a friend as Mrs. Blythe. But they needed something more, and that something would be supplied when he brought Rosemary West as a bride to the old manse. There was in her a quality essentially maternal. It was Saturday night and he did not often go calling on Saturday night, which was supposed to be dedicated to a thoughtful revision of Sunday’s sermon. But he had chosen this night because he had learned that Ellen West was going to be away and Rosemary would be alone. Often as he had spent pleasant evenings in the house on the hill he had never, since that first meeting at the spring, seen Rosemary alone. Ellen had always been there. He did not precisely object to Ellen being there. He liked Ellen West very much and they were the best of friends. Ellen had an almost masculine understanding and a sense of humour which his own shy, hidden appreciation of fun found very agreeable. He liked her interest in politics and world events. There was no man in the Glen, not even excepting Dr. Blythe, who had a better grasp of such things. “I think it is just as well to be interested in things as long as you live,” she had said. “If you’re not, it doesn’t seem to me that there’s much difference between the quick and the dead.” He liked her pleasant, deep, rumbly voice; he liked the hearty laugh with which she always ended up some jolly and well-told story. She never gave him digs about his children as other Glen women did; she never bored him with local gossip; she had no malice and no pettiness. She was always splendidly sincere. Mr. Meredith, who had picked up Miss Cornelia’s way of classifying people, considered that Ellen belonged to the race of Joseph. Altogether, an admirable woman for a sister-in-law. Nevertheless, a man did not want even the most admirable of women around when he was proposing to another woman. And Ellen was always around. She did not insist on talking to Mr. Meredith herself all the time. She let Rosemary have a fair share of him. Many evenings, indeed, Ellen effaced herself almost totally, sitting back in the corner with St. George in her lap, and letting Mr. Meredith and Rosemary talk and sing and read books together. Sometimes they quite forgot her presence. But if their conversation or choice of duets ever betrayed the least tendency to what Ellen considered philandering, Ellen promptly nipped that tendency in the bud and blotted Rosemary out for the rest of the evening. But not even the grimmest of amiable dragons can altogether prevent a certain subtle language of eye and smile and eloquent silence; and so the minister’s courtship progressed after a fashion. But if it was ever to reach a climax that climax must come when Ellen was away. And Ellen was so seldom away, especially in winter. She found her own fireside the pleasantest place in the world, she vowed. Gadding had no attraction for her. She was fond of company but she wanted it at home. Mr. Meredith had almost been driven to the conclusion that he must write to Rosemary what he wanted to say, when Ellen casually announced one evening that she was going to a silver wedding next Saturday night. She had been bridesmaid when the principals were married. Only old guests were invited, so Rosemary was not included. Mr. Meredith pricked up his ears a trifle and a gleam flashed into his dreamy dark eyes. Both Ellen and Rosemary saw it; and both Ellen and Rosemary felt, with a tingling shock, that Mr. Meredith would certainly come up the hill next Saturday night. “Might as well have it over with, St. George,” Ellen sternly told the black cat, after Mr. Meredith had gone home and Rosemary had silently gone upstairs. “He means to ask her, St. George—I’m perfectly sure of that. So he might as well have his chance to do it and find out he can’t get her, George. She’d rather like to take him, Saint. I know that—but she promised, and she’s got to keep her promise. I’m rather sorry in some ways, St. George. I don’t know of a man I’d sooner have for a brother-in-law if a brother-in-law was convenient. I haven’t a thing against him, Saint—not a thing except that he won’t see and can’t be made to see that the Kaiser is a menace to the peace of Europe. That’s his blind spot. But he’s good company and I like him. A woman can say anything she likes to a man with a mouth like John Meredith’s and be sure of not being misunderstood. Such a man is more precious than rubies, Saint—and much rarer, George. But he can’t have Rosemary—and I suppose when he finds out he can’t have her he’ll drop us both. And we’ll miss him, Saint—we’ll miss him something scandalous, George. But she promised, and I’ll see that she keeps her promise!” Ellen’s face looked almost ugly in its lowering resolution. Upstairs Rosemary was crying into her pillow. So Mr. Meredith found his lady alone and looking very beautiful. Rosemary had not made any special toilet for the occasion; she wanted to, but she thought it would be absurd to dress up for a man you meant to refuse. So she wore her plain dark afternoon dress and looked like a queen in it. Her suppressed excitement coloured her face to brilliancy, her great blue eyes were pools of light less placid than usual. She wished the interview were over. She had looked forward to it all day with dread. She felt quite sure that John Meredith cared a great deal for her after a fashion—and she felt just as sure that he did not care for her as he had cared for his first love. She felt that her refusal would disappoint him considerably, but she did not think it would altogether overwhelm him. Yet she hated to make it; hated for his sake and—Rosemary was quite honest with herself—for her own. She knew she could have loved John Meredith if—if it had been permissible. She knew that life would be a blank thing if, rejected as lover, he refused longer to be a friend. She knew that she could be very happy with him and that she could make him happy. But between her and happiness stood the prison gate of the promise she had made to Ellen years ago. Rosemary could not remember her father. He had died when she was only three years old. Ellen, who had been thirteen, remembered him, but with no special tenderness. He had been a stern, reserved man many years older than his fair, pretty wife. Five years later their brother of twelve died also; since his death the two girls had always lived alone with their mother. They had never mingled very freely in the social life of the Glen or Lowbridge, though where they went the wit and spirit of Ellen and the sweetness and beauty of Rosemary made them welcome guests. Both had what was called “a disappointment” in their girlhood. The sea had not given up Rosemary’s lover; and Norman Douglas, then a handsome, red-haired young giant, noted for wild driving and noisy though harmless escapades, had quarrelled with Ellen and left her in a fit of pique. There were not lacking candidates for both Martin’s and Norman’s places, but none seemed to find favour in the eyes of the West girls, who drifted slowly out of youth and bellehood without any seeming regret. They were devoted to their mother, who was a chronic invalid. The three had a little circle of home interests—books and pets and flowers—which made them happy and contented. Mrs. West’s death, which occurred on Rosemary’s twenty-fifth birthday, was a bitter grief to them. At first they were intolerably lonely. Ellen, especially, continued to grieve and brood, her long, moody musings broken only by fits of stormy, passionate weeping. The old Lowbridge doctor told Rosemary that he feared permanent melancholy or worse. Once, when Ellen had sat all day, refusing either to speak or eat, Rosemary had flung herself on her knees by her sister’s side. “Oh, Ellen, you have me yet,” she said imploringly. “Am I nothing to you? We have always loved each other so.” “I won’t have you always,” Ellen had said, breaking her silence with harsh intensity. “You will marry and leave me. I shall be left all alone. I cannot bear the thought—I cannot. I would rather die.” “I will never marry,” said Rosemary, “never, Ellen.” Ellen bent forward and looked searchingly into Rosemary’s eyes. “Will you promise me that solemnly?” she said. “Promise it on mother’s Bible.” Rosemary assented at once, quite willing to humour Ellen. What did it matter? She knew quite well she would never want to marry any one. Her love had gone down with Martin Crawford to the deeps of the sea; and without love she could not marry any one. So she promised readily, though Ellen made rather a fearsome rite of it. They clasped hands over the Bible, in their mother’s vacant room, and both vowed to each other that they would never marry and would always live together. Ellen’s condition improved from that hour. She soon regained her normal cheery poise. For ten years she and Rosemary lived in the old house happily, undisturbed by any thought of marrying or giving in marriage. Their promise sat very lightly on them. Ellen never failed to remind her sister of it whenever any eligible male creature crossed their paths, but she had never been really alarmed until John Meredith came home that night with Rosemary. As for Rosemary, Ellen’s obsession regarding that promise had always been a little matter of mirth to her—until lately. Now, it was a merciless fetter, self-imposed but never to be shaken off. Because of it to-night she must turn her face from happiness. It was true that the shy, sweet, rosebud love she had given to her boy-lover she could never give to another. But she knew now that she could give to John Meredith a love richer and more womanly. She knew that he touched deeps in her nature that Martin had never touched—that had not, perhaps, been in the girl of seventeen to touch. And she must send him away to-night—send him back to his lonely hearth and his empty life and his heart-breaking problems, because she had promised Ellen, ten years before, on their mother’s Bible, that she would never marry. John Meredith did not immediately grasp his opportunity. On the contrary, he talked for two good hours on the least lover-like of subjects. He even tried politics, though politics always bored Rosemary. The later began to think that she had been altogether mistaken, and her fears and expectations suddenly seemed to her grotesque. She felt flat and foolish. The glow went out of her face and the lustre out of her eyes. John Meredith had not the slightest intention of asking her to marry him. And then, quite suddenly, he rose, came across the room, and standing by her chair, he asked it. The room had grown terribly still. Even St. George ceased to purr. Rosemary heard her own heart beating and was sure John Meredith must hear it too. Now was the time for her to say no, gently but firmly. She had been ready for days with her stilted, regretful little formula. And now the words of it had completely vanished from her mind. She had to say no—and she suddenly found she could not say it. It was the impossible word. She knew now that it was not that she could have loved John Meredith, but that she did love him. The thought of putting him from her life was agony. She must say something; she lifted her bowed golden head and asked him stammeringly to give her a few days for—for consideration. John Meredith was a little surprised. He was not vainer than any man has a right to be, but he had expected that Rosemary West would say yes. He had been tolerably sure she cared for him. Then why this doubt—this hesitation? She was not a school girl to be uncertain as to her own mind. He felt an ugly shock of disappointment and dismay. But he assented to her request with his unfailing gentle courtesy and went away at once. “I will tell you in a few days,” said Rosemary, with downcast eyes and burning face. When the door shut behind him she went back into the room and wrung her hands. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. L. M. Montgomery (2004). Rainbow Valley. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5343/pg5343-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

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