A Daughter of the Land

"Neither have I," said Kate. "He's very silent, thinking out more

inventions, maybe. The worst thing about him is a kind of hard-

headed self-assurance. He got it fighting for his mother from

boyhood. He knew she would freeze and starve if he didn't take

care of her; he HAD to do it. He soon found he could. It took

money to do what he had to do. He got the money. Then he began

performing miracles with it. He lifted his mother out of poverty,

he dressed her 'in purple and fine linen,' he housed her in the

same kind of home other rich men of the Lake Shore Drive live in,

and gave her the same kind of service. As most men do, when

things begin to come their way, he lived for making money alone.

He was so keen on the chase he wouldn't stop to educate and

culture himself; he drove headlong on, and on, piling up more, far

more than any one man should be allowed to have; so you can see

that it isn't strange that he thinks there's nothing on earth that

money can't do. You can see THAT sticking out all over him. At

the hotel, on boats, on the trains, anywhere we went, he pushed

straight for the most conspicuous place, the most desirable thing,

the most expensive. I almost prayed sometimes that in some way he

would strike ONE SINGLE THING that he couldn't make come his way

with money; but he never did. No. I haven't an idea what he has

in his mind yet, but he's going to write me about it this week,

and if I agree to whatever it is, he is coming Sunday; then he has

threatened me with a 'deluge,' whatever he means by that."

"He means providing another teacher for Walden, taking you to

Chicago shopping for a wonderful trousseau, marrying you in his

Lake Shore palace, no doubt."

"Well, if that's what he means by a 'deluge,'" said Kate, "he'll

find the flood coming his way. He'll strike the first thing he

can't do with money. I shall teach my school this winter as I

agreed to. I shall marry him in the clothes I buy with what I

earn. I shall marry him quietly, here, or at Adam's, or before a

Justice of the Peace, if neither of you wants me. He can't pick

me up, and carry me away, and dress me, and marry me, as if I were

a pauper."

"You're RIGHT about it," said Nancy Ellen. "I don't know how we

came to be so different. I should do at once any way he suggested

to get such a fine-looking man and that much money. That it would

be a humiliation to me all my after life, I wouldn't think about

until the humiliation began, and then I'd have no way to protect

myself. You're right! But I'd get out of teaching this winter if

I could. I'd love to have you here."