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Page 35
"Clemency wished--" began James.
"Wished you to keep it secret, of course. Well, she told me herself,
poor little soul, the moment she came into the room."
James sat still. He did not know what to do. Finally he said in a
stammering voice that he hoped there would be no objection.
"No objection certainly on my part or Mrs. Ewing, if Clemency has taken
a fancy to you," replied Doctor Gordon. "But--" he hesitated a moment.
"It is only fair to tell you that you yourself may later on entertain
some very reasonable objection," Gordon said grimly.
"It is impossible," James cried eagerly. "I have known her only a few
weeks, but I feel as if it were a lifetime. Nothing can change me. And
as for money, if you mean anything of that kind, I don't care if she
hasn't a cent. I have my profession, and my father is well-to-do. Then,
besides, I have a little that an aunt, my mother's sister, left me. I
can support Clemency."
"It is not that," Gordon said. "Clemency has--at least I think I can
secure it to her--a little fortune of her own, and she will have
something besides. I was not thinking of money at all."
"Then there can be nothing," James said positively. His sense of
embarrassment had passed. He beamed at the older man.
"There can be something else. There is something else," Gordon said
gloomily. "I don't know but I ought to tell you, but, the truth is, you
know my theory with regard to secrecy. I don't doubt but you can hold
your tongue, yet the whole affair is so dangerous, that I dare not, I
cannot, tell you yet. I can only say this, that there does exist some
obstacle to your marriage with my niece, and your engagement must be
regarded by myself in a tentative light. If the time ever comes when you
know all, and wish to withdraw, you can do so in my opinion with perfect
honor. In the meantime you had better say nothing to any one outside.
You had better not even tell Mrs. Ewing. I hope Clemency herself will
not. Perhaps when she has had a few hours in which to collect herself,
her face will not be quite so tell-tale."
"Nothing whatever can change me," said James, with almost anger.
Gordon shook his head. "I begin to think I may have done you a wrong
having you come here at all," he said. "I suppose I ought to have
thought of the possibility, but I have had so much on my mind."
"You have done me the greatest good I ever had done me in my whole
life," James said fervently.
Gordon rose and shook the young man's hand. "As far as Clemency and I
and Mrs. Ewing are concerned," he said, "nothing could have been better.
Well, we will hope for the best, my boy." He clapped James on the
shoulder and smiled, and James went to his room feeling dizzy with
happiness and mystery, and a trifle so with the doctor's punch.
CHAPTER VII
The next morning James was awakened by loud voices coming from the
vicinity of the stable. He had not slept very well, and now at dawn felt
drowsy, but the voices would not let him sleep. He rose, dressed, and
went out in the stable-yard. There he found Doctor Gordon, Aaron, and a
strange man, small, and red-haired, and thin-faced, with shifty eyes,
holding by the bridle a fine black horse.
"Don't want to buy a horse with a bridle on," Doctor Gordon was saying
as James appeared.
"Do you think I'm the man to bear insults?" inquired the little
red-haired man with fierceness.
"Insult nothing. It is business," said Gordon.
"That's so," Aaron said, chewing and eyeing the black horse and the
red-haired man thoughtfully.
"Well," said the little red-haired man with an air at once of injured
innocence and ferocity, "if you want to know why I object to selling
this horse without a bridle, come here, and I'll show you." Gordon and
Aaron and James approached. The red-haired man slipped the bridle, and
underneath it appeared a small sore. "There, that's the reason, and I'll
tell you the truth," said the man defiantly. "Here I am trying to sell
this darned critter; paid a cool hundred for him, and everybody says
jest as you do, won't buy him with the bridle on. Then I takes off the
bridle, and they sees this little bile, and there's an end to it. I
suppose it's the same with you. Well, good day, gentlemen. You're losin'
a darned good trade, but it ain't my fault. Here's an animal I paid a
cool hundred for, and I'm offering him for ninety. I'm ten dollars out,
besides my time."
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