And he hurried to inform her that Mr. W—— had gone to California.
“One rival out of the way!” he said to himself.
But his hopes went below zero when she calmly told him she knew he was going before she left town, and he had telegraphed to her when he was on the point of starting.
“They’re engaged. I know they are!” groaned Frank to Lizzie, while Hattie was telling Mrs. Emory of the death of her mother.
“Who, you goose?” asked Lizzie. “What are you ready to blubber out a crying for?”
“Ned W—— would never have telegraphed to her all about his going off if they weren’t engaged!” almost sobbed Frank.
“Pooh! What is it to us, anyway?”
“To me, who is almost dying for her love—to me it’s everything. I tell you plain, sister, if Hattie Butler will not have me, I’ll go and enlist as a private soldier in the army, and get killed by Indians, or I’ll ship in a whaler, and fall overboard and break my neck!”
“Or swallow a whale like Jonah did,” said Lizzie, laughing. “Don’t be foolish, Frank. If she’ll only love you, it will all come right, and if she will not—why, you wouldn’t want to marry a girl without love!”
“No,” said Frank, with some hesitation. Then he added: “If she loves him she can’t love me. I wish he was dead. Who is she in mourning for?”