"No! Is that so?" and Tommy stared incredulously at Ben.
"It is Tommy. She is to marry her cousin to secure a home for her mother and sister," and Ben related to the boy what Bertha Ford had told him relative to her uncle's will.
"And he, does he love her?"
"From the conversation we both overheard in Pittsburg I should say not. I think he only marries her to secure the money."
"Her fate will be terrible," and the boy shuddered.
"Terrible indeed, Tommy. We speak about women selling themselves, who of us knows the fearful yet noble sacrifices they may be making in their sale?"
"Good, Ben, good! That shows your heart in the right place, my boy, and please God it stay there," said Tommy, very earnestly. "But she little knows the man she is about to marry."
"Do you know him, Tom?"
"Ben," said the boy speaking sharp and quick, "Listen to me before I change my mind. What you have told me has—has altered some intentions of my own. You love this girl; does she love you?"
"I know she does."