[Illustration: "Madeline presented a picture of youth and
loveliness."--page 17.]

John Arthur might have been, evidently had been, a handsome man, years
ago. But it did not seem possible that, even in his palmiest days,
Amos Adams could have been called anything save a fright. He was much
below the medium height. His head was sunken between his shoulders,
and thrust forward, and each feature of his ugly face seemed at war
with every other; while the glance of his greenish gray eye was such
as would cause a right-minded person involuntarily to cross himself
and utter, with perfect propriety, the Pharisee's prayer.

"The mischief fly away with you, man," said Mr. Arthur, seating
himself upon the fallen tree, and striking at the ground fiercely with
his cane; "what is my dead wife to you? Madeline makes my life a
burden by these same queries. It's none of your business why the
departed Mrs. Arthur left her property to me during my life, and tied
it up so as to make me only nominal master--mine to use but not sell,
not one acre, not a tree or stone; all must go intact to Miss
Madeline, curse her, at my death."

"Um-m, yes. Does the girl know anything of this?"

"If she did, your chances would be slim," said the other, scornfully.
"No; I have taken good care that she should not. She has a vixenish
temper, if she should get waked up to imagine herself 'wronged,' or
any such school-girl nonsense. I shall not live many years--this heart
disease is gaining on me fast; and if the girl is your wife, in case
of my death the fortune is as good as yours, you know. I want to have
peace while I do live; and for this reason, I say, I will give you my
step-daughter in marriage, and you shall give me the note you hold
against me for that old debt, the payment of which would compel me to
live like a beggar for the remainder of my days, and the sum of ten
thousand dollars."

"It's making a wife a rather expensive luxury," quoth old Amos,
seating himself; "but the girl's a beauty--no disputing that point;
and--"

"Of course she is," broke in Arthur, impatiently; "worth that, and
more, to whoever wants her, which, fortunately for you, I don't; she
is only a kill-joy to me. If you want the girl, take her, and be
blessed--I'll give away the bride with all the pleasure in the
world--and 'live happy ever after.'"

[Illustration: "What is my dead wife to you?"--page 20.]

There was not much room for argument between these two. It wa