I remember askin' him what his
wife's Christian name was (she bein' a stranger to Riverboro) an'
he said he didn't know! Said he called her Mis' Bixby afore he
married her an' Mis' Pike afterwards!"
"Well, there 's something turrible queer 'bout this marryin'
business," and Cephas drew a sigh from the heels of his boots.
"It seems's if a man hedn't no natcheral drawin' towards a girl
with a good farm 'n' stock that was willin' to have him! Seems
jest as if it set him ag'in' her somehow! And yet, if you've got
to sing out o' the same book with a girl your whole lifetime, it
does seem's if you'd ought to have a kind of a fancy for her at
the start, anyhow!"
"You may feel dif'rent as time goes on, Cephas, an' come to see
Feeble--I would say Phoebe--as your mother does. 'The best fire
don't flare up the soonest,' you know." But old Uncle Bart saw
that his son's heart was heavy and forbore to press the subject.
Annabel Franklin had returned to Boston after a month's visit and
to her surprise had returned as disengaged as she came. Mark
Wilson, thoroughly bored by her vacuities of mind, longed now for
more intercourse with Patty Baxter, Patty, so gay and unexpected;
so lively to talk with, so piquing to the fancy, so skittish and
difficult to manage, so temptingly pretty, with a beauty all her
own, and never two days alike.
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