“Oh! I detest them,” he said frankly, “with but few exceptions;” and he bowed to her.
“Do you always talk like this?” asked Mrs. Hardy with undisguised curiosity.
Eugene smiled at her. He knew that he talked like a grown-up man.
“Don’t tease the boy,” said the sergeant. “He isn’t a prig, anyway. Do you know,” he went on, addressing Eugene, “that I’m very fond of my wife?”
“You do not surprise me,” said Eugene with his lips; and in his heart he thought, “What astonishing candor! I never met such people.”
“Her father used to be worth his weight in gold,” said the sergeant. “He owned a flour-mill. Then he failed and died; and my wife, like a brave girl, taught and supported herself till I married her. I guess she’ll never do that again, though. She has got a rich old aunt that is going to leave her some money some day, so she will be provided for whatever happens to me.”
“I congratulate you,” said Eugene to his hostess.
“I hope your grand-uncle will do as square a thing by you as her aunt is doing by her,” said the sergeant. “We’ve got it down in black and white.”
Eugene’s face grew so pale that Mrs. Hardy shook her head at her husband. Then she pressed the boy to eat various things that she laid on his plate.