"
"Then Harcourt doesn't seem to have been as fortunate in his family
affairs as in his speculations?"
Peters uttered a grim laugh. "Well, I reckon you know all about his
son's stampeding with that girl last spring?"
"His son?" interrupted the stranger. "Do you mean the boy they called
John Milton? Why, he was a mere child!"
"He was old enough to run away with a young woman that helped in his
mother's house, and marry her afore a justice of the peace. The old man
just snorted with rage, and swore he'd have the marriage put aside, for
the boy was under age. He said it was a put-up job of the girl's; that
she was older by two years, and only wanted to get what money might be
comin' some day, but that they'd never see a red cent of it. Then, they
say, John Milton up and sassed the old man to his face, and allowed that
he wouldn't take his dirty money if he starved first, and that if the
old man broke the marriage he'd marry her again next year; that true
love and honorable poverty were better nor riches, and a lot more o'
that stuff he picked out o' them ten-cent novels he was allus reading.
My women-folks say that he actually liked the girl, because she was the
only one in the house that was ever kind to him; they say the girls were
just ragin' mad at the idea o' havin' a hired gal who had waited on 'em
as a sister-in-law, and they even got old Mammy Harcourt's back up by
sayin' that John's wife would want to rule the house, and run her out
of her own kitchen.
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