Not only did she shrink from the loving scrutiny of her
sister's eyes, and the gentle probing of her questions, which
would fix her own motives on a pin-point and hold them up
unbecomingly to the light; but she had a foolish, generous
loyalty that urged her to keep Waitstill quite aloof from her own
little private perplexities.
"She will only worry herself sick," thought Patty. "She won't let
me marry without asking father's permission, and she'd think she
ought not to aid me in deceiving him, and the tempest would be
twice as dreadful if it fell upon us both! Now, if anything
happens, I can tell father that I did it all myself and that
Waitstill knew nothing about it whatever. Then, oh, joy! if
father is too terrible, I shall be a married woman and I can
always say: 'I will not permit such cruelty! Waitstill is
dependent upon you no longer, she shall come at once to my
husband and me!
This latter phrase almost intoxicated Patty, so that there were
moments when she could have run up to Milliken's Mills and
purchased herself a husband at any cost, had her slender savinges
permitted the best in the market; and the more impersonal the
husband the more delightedly Patty rolled the phrase under her
tongue.
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