I can't leave here. I can't--take
that from me once and for all. But if you will leave me to find
my own way, I will try to prepare a way of getting honourably out
of it."
"There is no honour in such a matter."
"Well, well, it's just how you look at it. But if you'll give me
six months, I'll work it so that I can leave without being
ashamed to look others in the face."
The girl laughed with joy. "Six months!" she cried. "Is it a
promise?"
"Well, it may be seven or eight. But within a year at the
furthest we will leave the valley behind us."
It was the most that Ettie could obtain, and yet it was
something. There was this distant light to illuminate the gloom
of the immediate future. She returned to her father's house more
light-hearted than she had ever been since Jack McMurdo had come
into her life.
It might be thought that as a member, all the doings of the
society would be told to him; but he was soon to discover that
the organization was wider and more complex than the simple
lodge. Even Boss McGinty was ignorant as to many things; for
there was an official named the County Delegate, living at
Hobson's Patch farther down the line, who had power over several
different lodges which he wielded in a sudden and arbitrary way.
Pages:
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240