The Hon. Nathaniel disliked any reference to that raised check. “If he marries you, perhaps he will find it difficult to support you without borrowing money—but I shall not loan him any.”
“He says he can support me as well as I wish, and I am going to marry him.”
This was flat-footed defiance, and the Hon. Nathaniel grew red in the face at being thus bearded in his den.
“Maude, I am astonished. I command you not to meet this young man again unless in my presence or that of your mother. When I meet him, I shall have something to say to him.”
He resumed the reading of the document, and Maude, knowing that it was useless to say more, left the room.
The next day at noon, Maude told her mother she was going to make some purchases on Winter Street. As no objection was made, Maude felt sure that her father had not mentioned their conversation to her mother. She met Harry and they walked down the “Long Path” on the Common, made famous by the genial “Autocrat,” not only of one breakfast table, but of thousands of others.
“He will never consent,” said Maude.
“I thought so.”
“He was real mean to me—as sarcastic as he could be.”
“Rich fathers are usually indignant when their daughters wish to marry poor men. He can have no other objection to me.”