I will not promise you, therefore, I will
not give it to him, the instant I can."
This Jack Wallingford, of whom I have not yet spoken, was a man of
five-and-forty, and a bachelor. He was a cousin-german of my father's,
being the son of a younger brother of my grandfather's, and somewhat
of a favourite. He had gone into what was called the new countries,
in that day, or a few miles west of Cayuga Bridge, which put him into
Western New York. I had never seen him but once and that was on a
visit he paid us on his return from selling quantities of pot and
pearl ashes in town; articles made oh his new lands. He was said to be
a prosperous man, and to stand little in need of the old paternal
property.
After a little more conversation on the subject of my will, Grace and
I separated, each more closely bound to the other, I firmly believed,
for this dialogue in the "family room." Never had my sister seemed
more worthy of all my love; and, certain I am, never did she possess
more of it. Of Clawbonny she was as sure, as my power over it could
make her.
The remainder of the week passed as weeks are apt to pass in the
country, and in summer. Feeling myself so often uncomfortable in the
society of the girls, I was much in the fields; always possessing the
good excuse of beginning to look after my own affairs.
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