Caro stood before him, creasing the letter nervously. Her father's wrath broke upon her, for want of his proper victim.
"Git out, can't yer—wot are you dawdling here for? You women are all the same—you'd be as bad as her if you cud only git a man."
Caro shrank from the jibe as if from a blow, and Reuben laughed brutally. He had made one woman suffer anyway.
§ 23.
Of course the neighbourhood gloated; and the rustic convention was set aside in Rose's favour, and all the shame of her elopement heaped on Reuben.
"No wäonder as she cudn't stick to him—hard, queer chap as he be."
"And thirty year older nor she, besides."
"Young Handshut wur a präaper lad, and valiant. I äun't surprised as she'd rather have un wudout a penny than old Ben wud all his gold."
"And he äun't got much o' that now, nuther. They say as he'll be bust by next fall."