Isn't it rather absurd to talk of her as if she were? I believe
she considers herself free to come and go as she pleases, without any
questions from anyone." He paused and added: "I'm ready to answer any
she wishes to ask me."
Mr. Royall turned to her. "Ask him when he's going to marry you,
then----" There was another silence, and he laughed in his turn--a
broken laugh, with a scraping sound in it. "You darsn't!" he shouted out
with sudden passion. He went close up to Charity, his right arm lifted,
not in menace but in tragic exhortation.
"You darsn't, and you know it--and you know why!" He swung back again
upon the young man. "And you know why you ain't asked her to marry you,
and why you don't mean to. It's because you hadn't need to; nor any
other man either. I'm the only one that was fool enough not to know
that; and I guess nobody'll repeat my mistake--not in Eagle County,
anyhow. They all know what she is, and what she came from. They all know
her mother was a woman of the town from Nettleton, that followed one of
those Mountain fellows up to his place and lived there with him like a
heathen.
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