She fairly danced when she heard you had gone
to drive with Mr. Westerfelt. She hopes you will speak to him about
Toot. She's heard from him. He wants to come back home and marry her,
if Mr. Westerfelt can be persuaded to withdraw the charges. Do you
think he would, daughter?"
"Oh, I don't know, mother!" Harriet slowly ascended the stairs to her
room, and Mrs. Floyd sat down in the darkening parlor to devise some
scheme; she finally concluded that Harriet was too much in love to
manage her own affairs, and that she would take them in hand.
"He loves her, that's certain," she mused, "and he is a man who can be
managed if he is worked just right." She had evidently arrived at an
idea as to what should be done in the emergency, for she put on her
cloak and hat and went up to Harriet's room. The girl sat near the
bed, her head bent over to a pillow.
"Daughter," Mrs. Floyd said, laying her hand on Harriet's head, "you
stay here, and don't come down-stairs to-night for all you do. I'm not
going to have people see you looking like that. It will set 'em to
talking, after you've been to ride with Mr.
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