Besides, they need
you. I could see that with half an eye when I went away the other
morning. The old man hobbling around the barn trying to catch an old
hen was a sight to make the angels weep."
"Poor, poor Cap'n Ira!" she murmured.
"And poor Aunt Prudence--and poor _me_!" exclaimed Tunis. "What do
you think is going to happen to me? If you go away, I shall have to
sell all I own in the world and follow you."
"Tunis!" she cried, almost in fear. "You wouldn't."
"I certainly would. I am going to have you, one way or another.
Nobody else shall get you, Sheila. And you can't go far enough or
fast enough to lose me."
"Don't!" she said faintly. "You cannot be in earnest. Do you know
what it means if you and I have any association whatsoever? Oh! I
thought this was all over--that you would not tear open the wound--"
"I don't mean to hurt you, Sheila," he said softly. But he was
smiling. "I have got something to tell you that will, I believe, put
an entirely different complexion on your affairs."
"What--what can you mean?" she burst out. "Oh, tell me!"
"I'll tell you a little of it now. Just enough to keep you from
thinking I am crazy. The rest I will not tell you save in the Balls'
sitting room before Cap'n Ira and Aunt Prue.
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