"What do you think the Judge is going to say about this?"
"He is going to hate it. He is going to think that your daughter isn't good enough for his grandson."
"You are good enough for anybody, Mary. But this wasn't the right way."
"It was the only way. Didn't Mother tell you that he begged me to let him write to you and go to the Judge, and I wouldn't?"
"Why not?"
"I wanted to have him here, so that we might face it together."
"Your mother says she guessed it long ago. But she didn't say anything. Talking might make it worse."
"Talking would have made it worse, Dad. We had done it—and I'd do it again," there was a lift of her head, a light in her eyes, "but it hasn't been easy—to know that you wondered—that other people wondered. But it wouldn't have been any better if I had told. Truxton had to be here to make it right if he could."
"Why didn't he come a-runnin' to you as soon as he got on this side?"