United States or Benin ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
When he had arrived at Colebyville, however, John Hunter had found that country people had little ways of their own for the edification of the vainglorious, and that trim young men in buggies became infinitely more interesting to the scorned when they could be associated with scandal.
The time taken to think soberly of confession told more plainly than all her words how much she desired it. The one thing in life which Elizabeth most disliked was duplicity, and yet so long as he remained an invalid their relations would be kept up. For this alone he would have been glad to crawl on his knees to Colebyville, though he died on the way.
Elizabeth wished she could find time to run over to Uncle Nate's for a chat with Aunt Susan, but the busy day absorbed her and there was no time to go anywhere; in fact, it was time for John to come home from Colebyville, where he had gone to hunt for a hired man before the cleaning was really finished.
But most of all, as was to be expected, his suspicions were directed toward Elizabeth. She had known she probably knew from the beginning. She was in the conspiracy. Of the fact of a conspiracy John Hunter felt certain when Doctor Morgan cleared his throat and began to read: Hunter's Farm, Colebyville, Kansas, August 22, 18
John's being away from home those first days of Hugh's illness he had gone to Colebyville to dispose of Patsie's body and secure a new team to finish harvesting kept him from getting the run of the affairs of the sickroom, and enabled Elizabeth to assume the care of the invalid in her own way.
She would answer John's letter in one apart from this and send it by the same mail, but this letter she would send as it stood. As she got up to go to bed, she picked up the bag in which they brought the mail and felt in it to see if anything were left. A small narrow book that opened endwise and had the name of the Bank of Colebyville on it was all. It was a fitting end to her considerations.
"You'll go into Colebyville and sign the papers on that land all the same," John said doggedly. "I will sign no papers till there is a legal division of the property, John. I mean what I say. I'll let people talk if you crowd me before them," the girl said decisively. John glared at her in desperation. "Damn it! no wonder folks talked the week we were married!
You'll hear from the neighbours that Hugh's money has set me up and made a fool of me, and various other things," she added; and she saw in his face that it had already been said. The girl sat and looked into the night through the open door for a moment and then went on: "I shall go to Colebyville to-morrow, and see Doctor Morgan and look after business matters.
The fine weather had brought many people to Colebyville. Elizabeth had not been in town for a year, and the sight of pleasant, happy folk greeting each other cordially and wandering from store to store bartering eggs and butter for groceries and family necessities, and exchanging ideas and small talk about their purchases, had accentuated her isolation.
Jake had been using them since John's absence, but had come in from the field the night before with the announcement that he did not intend "to risk his neck with them broncos any more." Before Hugh got to Colebyville he was thoroughly displeased with them, and spoke of his dislike of them to John on the way home. "A few days on the harvester 'll fix them," John replied.
Word Of The Day