"I don't know that she's any too willing to," returned Abigail, half laughing. "The principal thing that seems to trouble the child is that Jerome won't come to see her. I rather think that if he would come to see her she would be perfectly contented." "And why can't he come to see her, if she wants him to--will you tell me that?" cried the Squire, with sudden fervor. "Eben Merritt, would you have the poor child getting to thinking more of him than she does, when he isn't going to marry her?" "And why isn't he going to marry her, if she wants him? By the Lord Harry, Lucina shall have whoever she wants, if it's a prince or a beggar! If that fellow has been coming here, and now--" "Eben, listen to me and keep quiet!" cried Abigail, running at her great husband's side, with a little, wiry, constraining hand on his arm, for the Squire had sprung from his seat and was tramping up and down in his rage that Lucina should be denied what she wanted, even though it were his own heart's blood. "You know what I told you," Abigail said. "Jerome is behaving well. You know he can't marry Lucina--he hasn't a penny." "Then I'll give 'em pennies enough to marry on. The girl shall have whom she wants; I tell you that, Abigail." "How much have you got to give them until we are gone, even if Jerome would marry under such conditions; and I told you what he said to Lucina about it," returned his wife, quietly. "I'll go to work myself, then," shouted the Squire; "and as for the boy, he shall swallow his damned pride before he gives my girl an anxious hour. What is he, to say he will or will not, if she lifts her little finger? By the Lord Harry, he ought to go down on his face like a heathen when she looks at him!" "Eben," said Abigail, "will you listen to me? I tell you, Jerome is behaving as well as any young man can. I know he is, from what Lucina has told me. He loves her, and he is proving it by giving her up. You know that he cannot marry her unless he drags her into poverty, and you know how much you have to help them with. You know, too, good as Jerome is, and worthy of praise for what he has done, that Lucina ought to do better than marry him." "He is a good boy, Abigail, and if she's got her heart set on him she shall have him." "You don't know that her heart is set on him, Eben. I think the best thing we can do is to send her down to Boston for a little visit--she may feel differently when she comes home." "I won't have her crossed, Abigail. Was she crying when you left her?" "She will soon be quiet and go to sleep. I am going to make some toast for her supper. Eben, where are you going?" The Squire had set forth for the door in a determined rush. "I am going to see that boy, and know what this work means," he cried, in a loud voice of wrath and pity.