“Yes, if he chooses. She is not a bad woman. She is mercenary, she never loved my uncle, and was only marrying him for his money. She is in love with Kane. I can read her like a book. And though she is older, she is congenial to him in many ways, and I hope,—I trust they will be happy together.”
Hoyt looked at the girl with a sort of reverence. She was like a willing martyr in a holy cause, and if her sacrifice was founded on falsehood, it was none the less noble.
“You are a saint,” he cried; “but you are mine! Oh, Avice, you shall yet love me, and not that usurper. May we announce our engagement at once?”
“No; you seem to forget you haven’t won me yet!”
“But I will! I cannot fail with such a glorious prize at stake!”
“You never can do that, except by freeing the man I do love!”
Hoyt’s brow contracted, but he made no complaint. Truly, he had been told often enough of Avice’s reasons for marrying him, and as he had accepted her terms, he had no right to cavil at them.
CHAPTER XVII
MADAME ISIS
“Yep, Miss Avice, I gotter go. Judge Hoyt, he’s got me a norful good place in a lawyer’s office, an’ I’m goin’ to get quite a bunch o’ money offen it. I do hate to leave this little ole town, but I don’t wanta trow down that swell job in Philly. So I come over to say goo’by, an’ if you’ll lemme I’d like to wish you well.”
Fibsy was embarrassed, as he always was in the presence of gentlefolk. The boy was so honestly ambitious, and tried so hard to overcome his street slang and to hide his ignorance of better language, that he usually became incoherent and tongue-tied.