She wants my advice concernin' the style of
paper; says it ought to be pretty and out of the common, but not too
expensive. I judge what she wants is somethin' that looks like money
but ain't really wuth more than ten cents a mile. I've been thinkin'
I'd send her a bale or so of those bonds; they'd fill the bill in those
respects, wouldn't they?"
Sylvester laughed. "They certainly would, Captain," he replied. "No,
we haven't unearthed any more of that sort. And, as for this mystery of
ours, I'll give you the answer--if it's worth giving at all, in a very
short time. Meanwhile, you go home and forget it."
"Well, I'll try. But I guess it sticks out on my face, like a four days'
toothache. But I WON'T worry about that. You know best whether to tell
me now or not, and--well, I'm carryin' about all the worry my tonnage'll
stand, as 'tis."
He drew a long breath. Sylvester regarded him sympathetically.
"You mustn't take your nephew's and niece's treatment too much to
heart," he said.
"Oh, I don't. That is, I pretend I don't. And I do try not to. But I
keep thinkin', thinkin', and wonderin' if 'twould have been better if I
hadn't gone there to live at all. Hi hum! a man of my age hadn't ought
to mind what a twenty-year-old girl says, or does; 'specially when
her kind, advisin' friends have shown her how she's been deceived and
hypocrit-ted.
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