"That is all very well, and might be borne like many another
cross; but I wanted to marry this particular 'aversion,"' argued
Patty. Would you have helped me to marry Mark secretly if I had
confided in you?"
"Never in the world--never!"
"I knew it," exclaimed Patty triumphantly. "We both said so! And
what was Mark to do? He was more than willing to come up here and
ask for me like a man, but he knew that he would be ordered off
the premises as if he were a thief. That would have angered Mr.
and Mrs. Wilson, and made matters worse. We talked and talked
until we were hoarse; we thought and thought until we nearly had
brain fever from thinking, but there seemed to be no way but to
take the bull by the horns."
"You are both so young, you could well have bided awhile."
"We could have bided until we were gray, nothing would have
changed father; and just lately I couldn't make Mark bide,"
confessed Patty ingenuously. "He has been in a rage about
father's treatment of you and me. He knows we haven't the right
food to eat, nothing fit to wear, and not an hour of peace or
freedom. He has even heard the men at the store say that our very
lives might be in danger if we crossed father's will, or angered
him beyond a certain point.
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