The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-06-04
"You're a GOOD girl. Patience.


young fellow, or he needn't be so very
young. was TO be wanting to take you
away to be mistress of a farm of Your
own"
"Oh, hush, father" said she, with
alarm. =. You're only wanting to try
me. There's nobody wants me but
YOU: and if there was-oh, don't you
know what l should say? l should say
No: if he was the King"
And so clear did her heart show itself
through her eyes that her father could
only say:
GIVE me kiss, my lass. So You
do care for your old father more than
all the world?"
Not more-only" said she.
He should have let well alone. But
then he would not have been Tom
Backthorn. ''And if anybody" he
said, .'says you're fretting after that
viper, Stephen Harlow, l may knock
him down for a lar-eh?n
What is Stephen Harlow to me?"
she said, with tremble in her voice
that would have told sharper ears that,
whether in love or hate, he was a great
deal ''Oh, father l thought -
thought-we were never to speak of
him again. For oh, you know did
care for him
"There-there- that'll do" said Tom
Blackthorn, hastily, with dread of
woman's tears; which, however, showed
no sign of coming. ''There-there.
But if you don't care for him, like my
own proud lass, there's naught to pre-
vent YOU caring for better man."
Never for any, better or worse, but
one-and that you. Father, promise me
one thing. Never speak of my marry
ing again; neither joking nor not jok-
ing You want me and | want you,
and naught else; and we'll be old man
and old maid together. So that's set
tied, father. If any mans been asking
for me you just tell him I'm married to
you"
He could not help being blessed, and
the more as, instead of the tears he
dreaded, she had tipped her own little
Jest with a real smile. But devotion of
that sort, however pleasant for the mo-
ment, would not keep Legs Croft, as he
felt when he had sic pit off the comfort
of the night, when the day is done and
nothing more can come to harm, and
was face to face with next morning and
a mortgaged farm.
He dreaded every footstep he heard,
lest it should be Enoch MarriSh come TO
claim either his daughter or his bond
But the creditor had far too much of
the wisdom of the serpent to appear too
soon or too suddenly upon the scene.
He was not man of tact; but he had
what can dispense with tact, and is bet
ter than all the tact in the world for
winning-a straight line between him
self and single end, and feet to follow
it, whether they led him through foul
marsh or open plain. He had not eIen
the weakness, on which some men
split. of preferring crooked ways to
straight ones. But if the crooked were
the surest and quickest, then they were
the ones to use. AS for turning back,
it was not in him. He had seen othHr
people do it, and had only wondered
how it WAS done.
Enoch fully understood, as if it bsd
been signed and sealed, that if he could
get the daughters ay he need not fear
the fathers nay. So, having found out
that maidens are queer cattle, he went
TO work warily. Not a word did he say
thenceforth to Tom or Patience about
the hold he had over Legs Croft (of
which, indeed, Patience otherwise knew
nothing). Not even by a hint did he
disparage her lost lover, though he
hated him as we can hate those alone
to whom we have done wrong. But,
to show how much in earnest he was,
he spent time, which to him meant its
full weight in money. He even let his
own affairs slide a bit Though never
past being able TO pull them up AGAIN.
in order to attend to Legs Croft end
tighten Tom Backbone shoulders.
He did not make love in any common
place way, because he did not know
how. and, indeed. it would have been
ridiculous in so elderl V lover. But he
made Patience feel grateful to him for
her fathers sake, and even a little for
her Own-though that was the same
thing.
She had an uncOnquerable dislike to
enter the village. or even to 90 on the
rarest errandS to less familiar Hun
chester. And, whether he perceived
this dislike or not, Enoch never went
anywhere without undertaking her
business as well as his OWN. Then her
father was beginning to want more
company, now that ne worked
less than ever. if that could be; and
Enoch, after such expeditions, or in the
long Sunday afternoons, would drop in
and listen while her father dilated on
the glories of the house of Blackthorn.
And never quick or impatient word,
though often he had to put up with
one, did he say. For if a creditor chose
to forget. or seem to forget, a debt,
Tom Blackthorn was not the man to
keep it in his memory.
But at last, when this art of thing
had gone on for what Enoch regarded
as reasonable time, he made a jour
ney to London, with the result that he
was missed. and was welcome back
again. And this time he did not make
his original mistake of seeing the father
first and the girl second. 1t was no
doubt more by good luck than by good
management that he found her alone in
the best parlor, where she sat seldom;
but then fortune has two favoriteS-
those who trust her altogether and
those who trust her never At all. Enoch
Marrish was one of the latter kind.
Miss Patience" said he, I've heard
some i'll news
She could not help her heart beating:
absurd as it was to think she would
ever hear news, good or i'll. of Stephen
again
You know your father is in money
trouble? No? Heis, then. Don't you
that debt which was to have
been paid off? Well"
That was settledr'