You know now what I did and you
know, too, what I've been and how I've behaved since I've been with
you.' You want to say to Maud: 'Do you care enough for me to marry
me in spite of what I've done and where I've been?' And to Sam:
'Providin' your daughter does care for me, I mean to marry her some
day or other. And you can't be on his pay roll when you say that,
as I see it."
Phillips stopped in his stride.
"You've put it just as it is," he declared emphatically. "There's
the situation--what then? For I tell you now, Jed Winslow, I won't
give her up until she tells me to."
"Course not, Charlie, course not. But there's one thing more--or
two things, rather. There's your sister and Babbie. Suppose you
do haul up stakes and quit workin' for Sam at the bank; can they
get along without your support? Without the money you earn?"
The young man nodded thoughtfully. "Yes," he replied, "I see no
reason why they can't. They did before I came, you know. Ruth has
a little money of her own, enough to keep her and Barbara in the
way they live here in Orham. She couldn't support me as a loafer,
of course, and you can bet I should never let her try, but she
could get on quite well without me. . . . Besides, I am not so
sure that . . ."
"Eh? What was you goin' to say, Charlie?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing. I have had a feeling, a slight suspicion,
recently, that-- But never mind that; I have no right to even hint
at such a thing.
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