"
"I must say I dread to have him hear the news"; and Waitstill
knitted her brows anxiously. "I hope it may be soon, and I think
I ought to be here when he is told. Mark will never under-stand
or bear with him, and there may be trouble that I could avert."
"I'll be here, too, and I'm not afraid! And Patty raised her head
defiantly. "Father can unmarry us, that's why we acted in this
miserable, secret, underhanded way. Somehow, though I haven't
seen Mark since we went to Allentown, I am braver than I was last
week, for now I've got somebody to take my part. I've a good mind
to go upstairs and put on my gold beads and my wedding-ring, just
to get used to them and to feel a little more married.--No: I
can't, after all, for there is father driving up the hill now,
and he may come into the house. What brings him home at this
hour?"
"I was expecting him every moment"; and Waitstill rose and
stirred the fire." He took the pung and went to the Mills for
grain."
"He hasn't anything in the back of the pung--and, oh, Waity! he
is standing up now and whipping the horse with all his might. I
never saw him drive like that before: what can be the matter? He
can't have seen my wedding-ring, and only three people in all the
world know about my being married.
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