“But is all forgotten now.”
It did seem to be, and in the long conversation which lasted till almost midnight, there was many a word of affection exchanged, many a confession made, many a forgiveness asked, and when, at last they parted, it was with the belief that each was all the world to the other.
Like lightning the news spread through the neighborhood that Frederic Raymond’s governess was Frederic Raymond’s wife; and, for many days the house was thronged with visitors, most of whom remembered little Marian Lindsey, and all of whom offered their sincere congratulations to the beautiful Marian Grey, for so she persisted in being called, until the night of the 20th of February, when they were to give a bridal party. Then she would answer to Mrs. Raymond, she said, but not before, and with this Frederic was fain to be satisfied. Great were the preparations for that party, to which all their friends were to be bidden, and as they were one evening making out the list, Marian suggested Isabel, more for the sake of seeing what Frederic would say, than from any desire to have her present.
“Isabel,” he repeated, “never. I cannot so soon forget her treachery,” and a frown darkened his handsome face, but Marian kissed it away as she said:
“You surely will not object to Ben, the best and truest friend I ever had.”
“Certainly not,” answered Frederic. “I owe Ben Burt more than I ever can repay, and I mean to keep him with us. He is just the man I want upon my farm—your farm, I mean,” he added, smiling knowingly upon her, and catching in his the little hand raised to shut his mouth.
But Marian had her revenge by refusing to let him kiss her until he had promised never to allude to that again.
“I gave you Redstone Hall,” she said, “that night I ran away, and I have never taken it back, but have brought you in instead an incumbrance which may prove a most expensive one.” And amid such pleasantries as these Marian wrote the note to Ben, and then went back to her preparations for the party, which, together with the strange discovery, was the theme of the whole country.
CHAPTER XXX.
BEN.
Ben sat among his boxes and barrels cracking hickory nuts and carrying on a one sided conversation with the well fed cat and six beautiful kittens, which were gamboling over the floor, the terror of rats and mice and the pride of their owner, who found his heart altogether too tender to destroy any one of them by the usual means of drowning or decapitation. So he was literally killing them with kindness, and with his seven cats and odd ways was the wonder and favorite of the entire village.