I sit by the hour trying to foist the blame
upon Archie Wickersham, and he's no more guilty than Dexter. Dexter's
merely good-natured about his crookedness; wholesome about it, somehow.
And Wickersham's a sneak!"
In all the years they had lived together Miss Sarah had never heard her
brother talk so bitterly. Yet her voice remained soft.
"It's very unpleasant, no doubt," she sympathized, "although I can't
quite see why they don't all join hands and try to make a success of
the project between them. Surely it seems feasible. And, somehow,
even after listening to you, I don't seem to find myself greatly
perturbed about our boy, Steve. He's very big and strong, Cal,
and--and I am very old-fashioned. I still believe in the might of
right. It may sound very feminine to you, but I do not find myself
worried at all over his lack of assistance in his work. And I must
confess that I did not have it in mind, at all, when I asked in regard
to his progress."
Caleb looked up, suspiciously.
"Well?" he said.
"I meant how--how did he and Barbara appear to--get on together?"
Caleb spilled a spoonful of soup.
"Her!" he exploded with no regard for his grammar. "Why, she is true
to her blood! If she weren't she wouldn't be engaged to that thief who
masquerades as a gentleman. She isn't blind, and she's going to marry
him!"
"You are positively violent, Cal," reproved his sister.
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