Leola’s letter refusing Bennett’s hand was exhibited in furious anger by the slighted recipient.
“She would prefer to marry a younger man than me, and she recommends me to take Miss Tuttle—that skinny, homely old maid, almost as old as I am!” he blustered, wrathfully, adding:
“You promised faithfully she should marry me, Hermann, but instead of watching her as you ought, you go poking among your old chemicals, as blind as a bat, and let her get engaged to a pretty-faced young jackanapes from the city—a pauper without a dollar to support his wife on, sir, and yet it lacks only a few days of the time set for my marriage to that saucy girl, and, mind you, if the ceremony is not pulled off in due time, I’ll lose not a day, I swear, in foreclosing the mortgage.”
It was in vain that Wizard Hermann tried to pacify him, saying that he would certainly keep his promise, and that he was sure that there was some mistake about Leola’s engagement to young Chester, who was almost a stranger.
But at this point Bennett produced his proof in the shape of Leola’s letter to Ray.
“This is worse than I thought, but it does not alter the fact that the girl shall be your wife, Bennett, for I have sworn to keep my promise, and I will not fail you, by Heaven!” vowed Hermann, continuing:
“As for neglecting to get matters into shape, that is false, for I have been quietly working to the promised end all these weeks, but, having encountered such determined opposition from the girl, I thought it expedient not to press her too hard, but to depend on force and cunning, since fair means failed. In fact, one of my objects in going to New York was to enlist the aid of my clever half-sister, Mrs. Stirling, in accomplishing the end in view. She will arrive with her daughter this morning, and although I admit that the case looks unpromising now, I believe we will soon wind a web around Leola from which she cannot escape. Go home, Bennett, and rest easy in the thought that before the end of a week she will be your charming bride.”
The prospective bridegroom beamed with joy and assured Hermann that he was ready to co-operate in any plan proposed for Leola’s subjugation.
“I will go to any length now to punish her for her contempt, and for advising me to marry a skinny old maid like Amanda Tuttle when I’m rich enough to buy a lovely young girl for a bride!” he vowed, coarsely, and took leave with renewed hope.
In the hall, as he was going out, he encountered Miss Tuttle, and fancied she might have been eavesdropping from her air of confusion, but he stalked past her with a curt nod that cut to her tender heart like a knife.