Marion Marlowe's True Heart, or, How a Daughter Forgave — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

7? I ain’t done nothin’ tew deserve it! 2 e yew done yewr best tew make Dollie marry Sile Johnson! Not but that yew meant well by the gal,” she added, a little more humbly, “but it shows on the face of it that it ain’t right fer a father tew interfere in-sech mat- ters. Ef our children hadn’t been driv so by their father, they might a-been here tew com- fort us this minute!” She put her apron up to her face and burst Her mother heart had “at last conquered her fear of her husband. out crying now. “T hain’t a-lookin’ fer comfort, Marthy,” “The facts of the case is clear, an’ we've got tew tace said the old farmer, stubbornly. 17? "em ! “Yew mean we've got tew leave the old home an’ go tew the Poor Farm, I s’pose,” “Oh, Joshuy! It’s hard, an’ }? was the answer. Joshua Marlowe arose and paced the floor excitedly, For the- first time in his life he began to feel the twinges of a rebuking con- science. Only two years before he had been a fairly prosperous farmer, with a good wife and three of the prettiest daughters to be found in that section. When Tom Wilders, a lean, lanky, close- fisted farmer from his own town, asked to marry Samantha; he gave her to him without a word, and his eldest daughter, who inherited her mpther’s meekness, accepted him for a husband, knowifg that she loathed the fellow. Only a little while after the marriage, Tom Wilders called on the deacon. His interview with his father-in-law was strictly private, but in some way it cost the deacon exactly five hundred dollars. Where he got the money no one knew fora time, but very soon Silas Johnson, another neighbor, began suing boldly for the hand of Dollie Marlowe. had but she Dollie was only seventeen, MY QUEEN. more spirit than Samantha, and, better yet, she had her sister Marion to protect her. For what the rest of the women of the Marlowe family lacked in spirit, beautiful, gray-eyed Marion made up in full. As she grew alder she developed the determination " of her father, but it was backed by honor and good judgment, and her love for her twin sis- ter made her as fearless as a lion. Quite by accident Marion learned of her father’s reason for assenting*to Silas John- son’s suit. He had given Silas a mortgage ~*~ on the farm for five hundred dollars in order to obtain the money to loan to Tom Wilders. Now, when the mortgage was to be fore- closed and the old people turned out, Tom, the dutiful son-in-law, not only refused to pay up, but he also refused to even harbor his wife’s parents. There was still a mystery about the loan of the money, but neither Mrs. Marlowe nor Samantha dared to question their husbands, __ and there was not a scrap of paper to prove the transaction. | “Ef Marion wuz here, she'd sift this thing tew the bottom,” thought poor, weak Mrs, 4 Marlowe, as she sat and wept, and then for, 7 perhaps, the first time in her life, she turned — and bitterly berated her husband. | “Yew’ve done it all, Joshuy!’ she said, lowering her apron. “Yew tied Samanthy 4 hand and foot tew the stingiest critter this — side,er Jordan, an’, what’s more, yew've driv both Marion and Dollie from their own fath- | er’s door—yew’'ve done it, an’ some day yew Te answer fer it, Joshuy A Her husband paused in his nervous pacing, — There was — ' and stared at her wonderingly. a red flush of shame creeping over his wrin- kled forehead. “T've never said it before, being I ain't dared, but I'll say it now ef yew kill me, Joshuy Marlowe! full tew keep still! I jest can't, an’ that’s all there is about I’m tew (e(0) 0\(0\(0)|| AMIE cS Eom i]