He found the lady, as usual, beautiful and elegant, and dressed to
perfection, and ready to receive him alone in the drawing-room.
"I've been seriously anxious about you, Guy," Mrs. Walraven said. "Your
prolonged absence nearly gave me a nervous fit. I had serious ideas of
calling at your office this afternoon. Why were you not here sooner?"
"Why wasn't I? Because I couldn't be in half a dozen places at once,"
answered her cousin, rather crossly. "I've been badgered within an inch
of my life by confounded women in shabby dresses and poky bonnets all
day. Out of two or three bushels of chaff I only found one grain of
wheat."
"And that one?"
"Her earthly name is Susan Sharpe, and she rejoices in red hair and
green glasses, and the blood and brawn and muscle of a gladiator--a
treasure who doesn't object to a howling wilderness or a raving-mad
patient. I clinched her at once."
"And she goes with you--when?"
"To-morrow morning. If Mollie's still obdurate, I must leave her in this
woman's charge, and return to town. As soon as I can settle my affairs,
I will go back to the farm and be off with my bride to Havana.
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