"
The glimmer of satiric yet benevolent humour that was never long absent
from her eyes, lightened there again, as she rolled and lit a "Plowboy."
"Have you noticed a change in the weather? A storm is blowing up. I'm
speaking figuratively ... I might as well out with it, Johnnie,--there's
a report, growing in strength, that a mob of townspeople is scheduled to
come your way to-night, some time, and treat you to a serenade of
protest and the traditional yokel hospitality of mobs ... a coat of tar
and feathers and a ride on a rail beyond the town limits."
"So it's come to that, has it?"
"Johnnie, it isn't the townsfolk that started it ... of that I am
certain ... left alone, they would still have been content to mind their
business, and accept you and Hildreth on a friendly basis...."
She brought up the story of the strange men haranguing from street
corners again....
"It's the New York newspapers, or one or two of the most sensational of
them, that are back of this new phase."
"You mean, Mrs. Rond, that they would dare go so far as to instigate an
attack on me and Hildreth ... with possibly fatal results?"
"Of course they would ... they need more news ... they want something
more to happen ... to have all this uproar end tamely in happy,
permanent love--that's what they couldn't endure....
"Well," she resumed after a pause, "what are you going to do? You're not
afraid, are you?"
"To tell the truth I am, very much afraid.
Pages:
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642