"I'll not forget such a delightful engagement, be sure."
Uncle John had his pocketbook out, and now he wadded up some bills and thrust them into the little school teacher's hand.
"Drive ahead, Louise," he called. "Good morning, my dear. See you on
Thursday."
As the vehicle rolled out of the yard and turned into the highway, Ethel unrolled the bills with trembling fingers.
"If he has dared—!" she began, but paused abruptly with a smile of content.
The rich man had given her exactly one hundred dollars.
CHAPTER IX.
THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS.
On Wednesday afternoon McNutt drove the sad-eyed sorrel mare over to the Wegg farm again. He had been racking his brain for a way to get more money out of the nabob, for the idea had become a veritable passion with him and now occupied all his thoughts.
That very morning an inspiration had come to him. Among other occupations he had at one time adopted that of a book-agent, and by dint of persistent energy had sold numerous copies of "Radford's Lives of the Saints" to the surrounding farmers. They had cost him ninety cents a copy and he had sold them at three dollars each, netting a fine profit in return for his labor. The books were printed upon cheap paper, fearfully illustrated with blurred cuts, but the covers were bound in bright red with gold lettering. Through misunderstandings three of these copies had come back to him, the subscribers refusing to accept them; and so thorough had been his canvassing that there remained no other available customers for the saintly works. So Peggy had kept them on a shelf in his "office" for several years, and now, when his eye chanced to light upon them, he gave a snort of triumph and pounced upon them eagerly. Mr. Merrick was a newcomer. Without doubt he could be induced to buy a copy of Radford's Lives.