oil, and seizing her poor parasol, still
standing up so straight in the piny sand, she stepped backward from him
and said, in a mocking voice:

'Thank you, Tom, for the honor you would confer upon me, and which I
must decline, for I would rather wash grandma's stockings all my life,
and Harold's overalls, too, than marry a man for money.'

'Jerrie, oh, Jerrie, you don't mean it! You do not refuse me!' Tom
cried, in alarm, stretching out his arm to reach her but touching only
the parasol, to which he clung desperately as a drowning man to a straw.

'I do mean it, Tom,' she said, softened a little by the pain she saw in
his face. 'I can never be your wife.'

'But why not!' Tom demanded. 'Many a girl who stands higher socially in
the world than you would gladly bear my name. I might have married
Governor Storey's daughter, at Saratoga, last summer. She threw herself
at my head, but one thought of you was enough to keep me from her. You
cannot be in earnest.'

'But I am. I care nothing for your money, which may or may not be yours.
I do not love you, Tom; and without love I would not marry a prince.'

It was very hard for Tom to believe that Jerrie really meant to refuse
him, Tom Tracy, who with all his love for her--and he did love her as
well as he was capable of loving any one--still felt that he was
stooping a little, or at least was honoring her greatly when he asked
her to be his wife. And she had refused him, and kept on refusing him in
spite of all he could say; and worse than all, made him feel at last
that she did not consider it an honor to be Mrs. Tom Tracy, of Tracy
Park, and did not care either for him or his prospective fortune. She
called it that finally, then Tom grew angry and taunted her with
fostering a hope that Arthur might make her his heir, or at least leave
her some portion of his money.

'But I tell you he can't do it. A crazy man's will would never stand,
and he is crazy and you know it. You will never touch a dollar of Uncle
Arthur's money, if you live to be a hundred, unless it comes to you from
me. Don't flatter yourself that you will, and don't flatter yourself
either that you will ever catch Hal Hastings, who is the real obstacle
in my way. I know that very well, and so do you; but let me tell you
that what heart he has is given to Maude, who is silly enough to
encourage him; though I doubt if she would ever marry him when it comes
to that. She will look higher than a painter, a carpen