“Indeed you're not, dear,” she said. “If I supposed my marriage meant giving you up, I shouldn't think of it.”
“Want to know! Wouldn't think of John, either, I suppose, hey?”
“Well, I--I might think of him a little, just a tiny little bit.”
“I shouldn't wonder. That's all right. You can't get rid of me so easy. After you two are all settled in your fine new house, I'll be comin' around to disgrace you, puttin' my boots on the furniture and--”
“Won't I? Well, maybe I won't. I cal'late by that time I'll be broke to harness. Your mother's gettin' in with the swells so, lately, Barney Black's wife and the rest, that I'll have to mind my manners. There! let's go into the sittin'-room a few minutes and give Zuba a chance to clear off. Sam's tendin' store and his dinner can wait a spell; judgin' by the time he took for breakfast he hadn't ought to be hungry for the next week.”
In the sitting-room they spoke of many things, of Gertrude's departure for school--she was leaving on the three o'clock train--of the engagement, of course, and of the three thousand dollar windfall from Aunt Lavinia. The captain had told that bit of news when they sat down to dinner.
“What is that cousin's name?” asked Gertrude. “The one who inherits all of your aunt's fortune?”
“Let's see. His name? I ought to know it well's I know my own. It's--it's Starvation, or somethin' like that. Somethin' about bein' hungry, anyhow. Hungerford, Percy Hungerford, that's it!”
“Not Percy Hungerford--of Scarford!” she cried. “What sort of a man is he? What does he look like?”
“Looked like a picked chicken, last time I saw him. Kind of a spindlin' little critter, with sandy complexion and hair, but dressed--my soul! there wasn't any picked chicken look about his clothes.”
Gertrude nodded. “I believe it is the same one,” she said. “Yes, I am sure of it. He came out to the college at one of our commencements. One of the girls invited him. He danced with me--once. They said he was very wealthy.”
“Humph! All the wealth he had come from Aunt Laviny, far's I ever heard. He was her pet and the only thing she ever spent money on, except herself. And you met him! Well, this is a small world. Like him, did you?”
“No,” said Gertrude, and changed the subject.