Page:Teeftallow-1926.djvu/397

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Teeftallow
387

"You—you don't mean that all—all my gran'daddy's farms are—gone!" he asked in a dry, shaken whisper.

The magnate spread his hands in indifferent acquiescence.

"Father!" shrilled Adelaide, horrified. "Why didn't you tell him!"

"Tell him! Tell him!" wheezed the magnate disgustedly. "Ever' one of you—my daughter included—talks like a passel of fools. I wish I'd never come down to this fool place! I tol' Abner they wasn't no use me comin'. I knowed what you-all would say. I come aginst my better judgment, an' now I'm goin'!"

Adelaide suddenly flung her arms about her lover.

"You're not going to cheat Abner!" she shrieked. "I love him! I'm going to marry him! And if you try to cut me out of your will, I'll—I'll smash it!" She shook a firm little fist at her father. "You can smash a will—a smart lawyer can smash anybody's will!"

"Addy! Addy!" cried the fat man reproachfully, "how can you say that! Have I ever denied you a thing in the worl' you set yore heart on? They won't be but one name in my will, Addy, an' that'll be yores. But I do hope you'll recolleck that this boy's daddy, Linsey Teeftaller, run through with old man Coltrane's fortune, drove Lydy Coltrane crazy, and brought her to the pore farm to die, an' now it looks like you're fixin' to let Linsey Teeftaller's boy do the same thing with my money—an' my little gal. . . ."

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.