“Handsomer than Mary?”
“No comparison; but you’ve seen her. She was out here the other day.”
“What! That woman with the cap and ribbons? You don’t say so; golly! here she comes, and I’m off. Don’t want to be introduced to my new sister-in-law just yet. She might put on airs.”
With these words Boyce stepped into the kitchen, took up his basket, and left the house.
CHAPTER LIV.
PREPARING FOR THE WEDDING.
“Mr. Mahone! Mr. Mahone! Is there any news?” said Ellen Post, advancing toward the laundry.
“Hush! Step in here; the cook is always prowling in and out of that room. That’s right. Shut the door. You were asking about news. Yes, indeed, that boy was arrested yesterday. This morning an officer is after the old woman—two of the Laurence family are in for it. As for that girl, Eva, I’m afraid we can’t fasten on her just yet.”
“Oh, we can wait for her. Mrs. Lambert’s agent was here this morning about foreclosing a mortgage on the house. They haven’t kept up the interest. I don’t think she’d order them turned out, much as she hates them. So I told him she was sick; but I’d take up his message, which was to ask for directions. She was asleep on the sofa, so I told him that she was not well enough to talk about business, but wanted this troublesome mortgage closed up at once, without bothering her again about it.”
“That was a ten strike,” said the admiring Robert.
“So, when they get back from prison, their shanty will be gone, and we shall have rooted them out, trunk and branch. I’m sure that must satisfy Miss Spicer.”