ople in this
neighborhood hasn't give you credit for what's in you. The way you
have fixed up this place, and the short time you have took to do it, is
enough to show us now what sort of a man you are; and I tell you, sir,
we're proud of you for a neighbor. I don't believe there's another
gentleman in this county of your age that could have done what you have
done in so short a time. I expect now you will be thinking of getting
married and startin' housekeepin' in a regular fashion. That comes just
as natural as to set hens in the spring. By the way, have you heard that
old Mr. Havelot's thinkin' of goin' abroad? I didn't believe he would
ever do that again, because he's gettin' pretty well on in years, but
old men will do queer things as well as young ones."

"Going abroad!" I cried. "Does he intend to take his daughter with
him?"

Mr. Aaron Boyce smiled grimly. He was a great old gossip, and he had
already obtained the information he wanted. "Yes," he said, "I've heard
it was on her account he's going. She's been kind of weakly lately, they
tell me, and hasn't took to her food, and the doctors has said that what
she wants is a sea voyage and a change to foreign parts."

Going abroad! Foreign parts! This was more terrible than anything I had
imagined. I would go to Mr. Havelot that very evening, the only time
which I would be certain to find him at home, and talk to him in a way
which would be sure to bring him to his senses, if he had any. And if
I should find that he had no sense of propriety or justice, no sense of
his duty to his fellow-man and to his offspring, then I would begin a
bold fight for Agnes, a fight which I would not give up until, with her
own lips, she told me that it would be useless. I would follow her to
Kentucky, to Europe, to the uttermost ends of the earth. I could do it
now. The frozen deposits in my terminal moraine would furnish me with
the means. I walked away and left the old farmer standing grinning. No
doubt my improvements and renovations had been the subject of gossip
in the neighborhood, and he had come over to see if he could find out
anything definite in regard to the object of them. He had succeeded, but
he had done more: he had nerved me to instantly begin the conquest of
Agnes, whether by diplomacy or war.

I was so anxious to begin this conquest that I could scarcely wait for
the evening to come. At the noon hour, when the ice-works were deserted,
I walked down the shaft and