Jeff nearly came to grief that night, for a party of the
malcontents followed him on his homeward walk. Suspecting their
purpose, he dodged behind some shrubbery, heard their threats to
break his head and smash his fiddle, and then went back to a tryst
with Suky.
That sagacious damsel had been meditating on the proposed
alliance. Even in her rather sophisticated mind she had regarded a
semblance of love as essential; but since Jeff had put everything
on such superior grounds, she felt that she should prove herself
fit for new and exalted conditions of life by seeing to it that he
made good all his remarkable promises. She remembered that he had
not yet opened the box of money, and became a little sceptical as
to its contents. Somebody might have watched Jeff, and have
carried it off.
True, she had the ring, but that was not the price of her hand.
Nothing less than had been promised would answer now; and when she
stole out to meet Jeff she told him so. Under the witching
moonlight he began to manifest tendencies to sentiment and
tenderness.
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