“Bertha would certainly have more time for her own work, and an easier life altogether, in living with Hilda,” put in Grace; but to this Bertha made no reply, as she took the pail and went out to milk the cow.
She was feeling miserably depressed, although in reality she ought to have been very happy indeed, seeing that some, at least, of the tangles had been smoothed out of her path.
By the very same mail which had brought Hilda’s letter, a communication had been received from the lawyer engaged in winding up the estate of Tom’s Uncle Joe, stating that the old man had left a brief will behind him, in which everything he possessed was left to his dear nephew, Thomas Ellis; so there would be no more straitened means for the household at Duck Flats, and it was very certain that they would not forget their past indebtedness to her for standing by them so bravely in their troubles.
“Bah! As if money were everything!” she exclaimed, with almost spiteful emphasis, as she rose from her stool, and then she blushed a furious red as Edgar Bradgate entered the barn.
“Where have you sprung from? I thought that you were at Rownton,” she said, in surprise.
“I have been even farther than that, for I have just come from Gilbert Plains,” he answered, and then he went on, “And I have had some work offered to me at last, really responsible work, I mean, which is one of the good things resulting from having a character once more.”
“Are you going to take it?” she asked.
“That is what I was coming to ask you,” he replied. “Having a prospect at last of being able to keep a wife makes me bold enough to ask for what I want, and as I would rather marry you than be President of the United States, or any equally exalted office, it is for you to say whether I can take this post and be happy.”
The colour went flaming over Bertha’s face as she placed the milk-pail on the ground and stood looking at him, as if in actual doubt of his meaning, although his words had been plain enough. Then a light of dancing mischief came in her eyes, and she asked demurely—
“And if I say no?”