“Don’t talk of her love for me,” fiercely interrupted the parent; “we only judge of a person by his actions.”
“But you and I have made mistakes––”
“Nothing like this; why did she not ask me? why did he not tell me that he wished to marry her?––that is if he does,” added the father, as if determined to make his own cup as bitter as possible.
“He did not ask you, because he knew you would refuse; for from the first time he entered this community, he was determined to have her.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because Ruggles and I read him; we did what no one else did,––we measured the man. Am I right, Wade?”
The miner nodded his head.
“Every word is as true as gospel; we noticed his sly looks at her, that first night you and him entered the Heavenly Bower and she was there. We couldn’t make any mistake about it.”
“And you didn’t warn me! You two are as bad as he, because you kept the secret when you ought to have put me on my guard, so that I might have strangled him at the first advance he made.”