"I shall not consent to such a monopoly," urged the warm-hearted girl. "We shall claim you part of the time. I read this in the paper which I generally skim over for papa while he eats his breakfast; and I couldn't wait one minute till I learned what it meant."
"Paul don't leave for two months yet," explained his wife.
"In that case I shall have time to offer all my inducements to keep you in Chicago," rejoined Marion smiling; "and as I left papa and mamma almost as anxious as I was, I'll hurry back and enlighten them."
The advertisement was answered at once by a lady, whose daughter was intending to be married immediately. The couple had been disappointed in a house they expected to hire, and the mother of the lady was so pleased with this, that she brought her daughter and fiancée at once to decide.
Before Edward left the next day, the lease was drawn and signed, a check for the money to be forwarded to him in New York quarterly; and nothing remained but for Gertrude to look over with the lady an inventory of every article left in the house.
[CHAPTER XIV.]
THE SEPARATION.
I MUST pass rapidly over the succeeding months. The first of October found Gertrude in her old home renewing her acquaintance with every nook and corner of the farm, caressing the old house dog, coaxing the draught horse to let her mount for a ride, and winning anew the hearts of the neighbors by her evident sympathy with all that concerned them.
Bridget was there too, having accompanied her master and mistress to New York at Edward's special request. He could see that Hannah's lame ancle made it painful for her to be on her feet from morning till night, as had been her custom; though she would acknowledge nothing of the kind, the young lawyer was sure Bridget's faithful service would turn to good account on the farm, when once initiated into the mysteries of butter and cheese making, raising Jersey calves and rare kinds of fowls.
Paul sailed from New York the last week in September, remaining in the city only three days. He was astonished to find that his brother-in-law had gathered a lucrative practice; for the gentleman had been very reticent concerning his own affairs, and was surprised into the remark: