“Then he said that I would have a comfortable home if I married Silas, and that I’d go straight to destruction if he did not look out for me!”
“How horrible!” burst out Marion. “And to think he is our own father! Why isn’t he content with one such experiment? Poor sister Samantha, whom he forced to marry Tom Wilders! I should think her miserable life would be a warning to him! Oh, Dollie, if we could only go away and earn our own living. You can play the piano beautifully and I can sing. If we could only go somewhere and make our own way where we should never bother father, I should be perfectly happy!”
The beautiful face was radiant with eagerness now, and some of her wonderful courage seemed reflected upon Dollie’s more babyish features.
“It would kill me to marry Silas!” she cried with a shudder. “Father shall not force me to do it, Marion, never!”
There was a close clasp of the arms about each other’s waists as the two girls walked on and Dollie’s golden head almost rested upon her sister’s shoulder.
“Why, Marion, what do you think! He tried to bribe me,” she added, suddenly. “He said I could have grandma’s topazes the day I was married to Silas.”
A look of disgust swept over Marion’s face.
“As if those old earrings of grandma’s could make up for such a crime! And it is a crime to marry without love, my sister.”
A piteous sob broke from Dollie’s lips and she moved a step away.
“There’s no help for it, Marion. He’ll make me do it,” she cried. “He’ll ruin my life just as he ruined Samantha’s, for, oh, it will kill me to be tied down to the drudgery of farm life forever, and especially with such a man as Silas.”