"
"I can't, Cephas; don't move; stay where you are; no, don't come
any nearer; I'm not fond of you that way, and, besides,--and,
besides-"
Her blush and her evident embarrassment gave Cephas a new fear.
"You ain't promised a'ready, be you?" he asked anxiously; "when
there ain't a feller anywheres around that's ever stepped foot
over your father's doorsill but jest me?"
"I haven't promised anything or anybody,"
Patty answered sedately, gaining her self-control by degrees,
"but I won't deny that I'm considering; that's true!"
"Considerin' who?" asked Cephas, turning pale.
"Oh,--SEVERAL, if you must know the truth"; and Patty's tone was
cruel in its jauntiness.
"SEVERAL!" The word did not sound like ordinary work-a-day
Riverboro English in Cephas's ears. He knew that "several" meant
more than one, but he was too stunned to define the term properly
in its present strange connection.
"Whoever 't is wouldn't do any better by you'n I would. I'd take
a lickin' for you any day," Cephas exclaimed abjectly, after a
long pause.
"That wouldn't make any difference, Cephas," said Patty firmly,
moving towards the front door as if to end the interview. "If I
don't love you UNlicked, I couldn't love you any better licked,
now, could I?--Goodness gracious, what am I stepping in? Cephas,
quick! Something has been running all over the floor.
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