Turning so that she faced both her father and mother, Marion rested her right hand lightly on her sister’s shoulder.
“I will answer him, sister, and it shall be once for all, for this anxiety is killing me. I can brave it no longer. When a girl’s own father and mother refuse to protect her it is high time for some one else to interfere. Dollie does not love Silas Johnson and she shall never marry him, for in spite of you both I will find some way to prevent it.”
CHAPTER IV.
THE ABDUCTION OF DOLLIE.
Joshua Marlowe’s tanned and bearded face grew pale at his daughter’s words. They rang in his ears for hours after she uttered them. He was not an altogether bad man at heart, but he was narrow-minded and ignorant. First of all, he loved his farm; wife and children came after.
This deal with Silas had been his own secret.
If the marriage was not consummated it would become public property.
But what was a man to do with a daughter like Marion? It was a proposition which would have puzzled a wiser man than Solomon.
Martha Marlowe had always been an obedient wife. It did not occur to the old farmer that Marion might have inherited her obstinacy in some degree from her father.
The day following the tragic scene in the kitchen Marion spent in close companionship with Dollie, but still the girl’s manner baffled and pained her.