my word publicly? You
have noticed how insultingly father treats him of late, passing him by
without a word when he meets him in the street? You remember, too, that
he has never gone to Lawyer Wilson for advice, or put any business in
his hands since spring?"

"The Wilsons are among father's aversions, that is all you can say;
it is no use to try and explain them or rebel against them," Waitstill
answered wearily.

"That is all very well, and might be borne like many another cross; but
I wanted to marry this particular 'aversion,'" argued Patty. "Would you
have helped me to marry Mark secretly if I had confided in you?"

"Never in the world--never!"

"I knew it," exclaimed Patty triumphantly. "We both said so! And what
was Mark to do? He was more than willing to come up here and ask for me
like a man, but he knew that he would be ordered off the premises as if
he were a thief. That would have angered Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, and made
matters worse. We talked and talked until we were hoarse; we thought and
thought until we nearly had brain fever from thinking, but there seemed
to be no way but to take the bull by the horns."

"You are both so young, you could well have bided awhile."

"We could have bided until we were gray, nothing would have changed
father; and just lately I couldn't make Mark bide," confessed Patty
ingenuously. "He has been in a rage about father's treatment of you and
me. He knows we haven't the right food to eat, nothing fit to wear, and
not an hour of peace or freedom. He has even heard the men at the store
say that our very lives might be in danger if we crossed father's will,
or angered him beyond a certain point. You can't blame a man who loves
a girl, if he wants to take her away from such a wretched life. His love
would be good for nothing if he did not long to rescue her!"

"I would never have left you behind to bear your slavery alone, while I
slipped away to happiness and comfort--not for any man alive would I
I have done it!" This speech, so unlike Waitstill in its ungenerous
reproach, was repented of as soon as it left her tongue. "Oh, I did not
mean that, my darling!" she cried. "I would have welcomed any change for
you, and thanked God for it, if only it could have come honorably and
aboveboard."

"But, don't you see, Waity, how my marriage helps everything? That
is what makes me happiest; that now I shall have a home and it can be
yours. Father has plenty of money and can get a h