"Dad--it couldn't be--it was not Aunt Sophia? That would explain a lot of things. You know I think she's been laying some snares lately. She even forgave me when I told her the other evening that that was the last time I would ever accept an invitation from Mr. Canter, even as a favor to her. Dad, she'd make you miserable. You couldn't." "No," said Mr. Leigh. "In fact, it was not a lady at all. It was a person of the opposite sex, and the proposal was for your hand." "Dad! Who was it? Now, dad." She moved around the table to him, as Mr. Leigh, with eyes twinkling over his victory, shut his mouth firmly. "Dad, you'd just as well tell me at once, for you know I am going to know, so you might as well tell me and save yourself trouble. Who was it?" Mr. Leigh took her firmly by the arms and seated her on his knee. "Well, it was a young man who appeared quite in earnest." "It wasn't--no, I know it wasn't he--he wouldn't have done that--and it wasn't--" (she pondered) "no, it wasn't he--and it wasn't--" She suddenly paused. "Tell me, what did he say? How did you like him? What did you say to him?" "So you have settled who it is. Perhaps, you sent him to me?" "Indeed, I did not, and I don't know who it was. What did you tell him?" "I told him you were of age----" "I am not. I am twenty." "No, I told him you were too young--to think of such a thing----" "I am twenty," repeated the girl. "That is what I told him," said Mr. Leigh, "and that I thought you were able to take care of yourself." The girl rested her chin on his head and went off in a reverie. "Dad, we must hold together," she said. Her father drew her face down and kissed her silently. "The man who takes you away from me will have to answer with his life," he said. "There is no one on earth who could," said Eleanor. XXXVI THE RIOT AND ITS VICTIM It is a terrible thing for a man with a wife and children to see them wasting away with sheer starvation, to hear his babes crying for bread and his wife weeping because she cannot get it for them. Some men in such a situation drown their sorrow in drink; others take a bolder course, and defy the law or the rules of their order. The Railway Company, still being forced to run their cars, undertook to comply with the requirement, even though the protection of the police was withheld. The police were instructed, indeed, to be present and keep the peace, and a few were detailed, but it was known to both sides that no real protection would be granted. Coll McSheen's order to the force bore this plainly on its face--so plainly that the conservative papers roundly denounced him for his hypocrisy, and for the first time began to side decisively with the company.