A white dust had settled on his hair and clothes, and this
accentuated the glow in his face and gave to his whole appearance a
picturesque and slightly theatrical cast.
"If it hadn't been Molly, it would have been some one else," he added
impulsively. "Ma would be sure to hate any woman she thought I'd fallen
in love with. It's born in her to be contrary just as it is in that
hopvine out yonder that you can't train up straight."
"All the same, if I were going through fire and water for a girl, I'd be
pretty sure to choose one that would make it worth my while at the end.
I wouldn't put up with all that hectoring for the sake of anybody that
was as sweet to half a dozen other fellows as she was to me."
Abel's face darkened threateningly under his silvered hair.
"If you are trying to hint anything against Molly, you'd as well stop in
the beginning," he said. "It isn't right--I'll be hanged if it is!--that
every man in the county should be down on a little thing like that, no
bigger than a child. It wasn't her fault, was it, if her father played
false with her mother?"
"Oh, I'm not blaming her, am I? As far as that goes all the women like
her well enough, and so do all the dogs and the children.
Pages:
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84