Forerunner — Volume 1 by Unknown
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page 33 of 1199 (02%)
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won't sell, but you've got to mortgage. By and by you can't pay up, and
I'll get it--see? Then maybe you'll take me--to keep the house. Don't be a fool, Delia. It's a perfectly good investment." She had taken the loan. She had paid the interest. She would pay the interest if she had to take boarders all her life. And she would not, at any price, marry Peter Butts. He broached the subject again that evening, cheerful and undismayed. "You might as well come to it, Delia," he said. "Then we could live right here just the same. You aren't so young as you were, to be sure; I'm not, either. But you are as good a housekeeper as ever--better--you've had more experience." "You are extremely kind, Mr. Butts," said the lady, "but I do not wish to marry you." "I know you don't," he said. "You've made that clear. You don't, but I do. You've had your way and married the minister. He was a good man, but he's dead. Now you might as well marry me." "I do not wish to marry again, Mr. Butts; neither you nor anyone." "Very proper, very proper, Delia," he replied. "It wouldn't look well if you did--at any rate, if you showed it. But why shouldn't you? The children are gone now--you can't hold them up against me any more." "Yes, the children are both settled now, and doing nicely," she admitted. |
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