"No, thanks," Hardy said; but
"Yes, thanks!" his daughter decided, and popped into a seat. "Red" loved
her for it.
Hardy turned to young Jones. "Well?" was all he said. He referred to his
state of health--not that he cared how Gilbert felt.
"Anything but," the latter answered.
Jasper Hardy always went right to the point. He disliked equivocation; so
he rasped out immediately:
"Have you got the money?"
"No."
Angela, who was tender-hearted, tried to intercede.
"Now, father!" she pleaded. She hated this business.
But Hardy paid not the slightest heed to her. He was a man of action, and
women shouldn't interfere--particularly young and pretty girls.
"Then I reckon I'll have to foreclose," he went on relentlessly. "There's
nothing else to do." His hands closed tightly, and his hard eyes looked
even harder.
"I'm afraid you're right," Gilbert said. "I was afraid it would be
inevitable. I couldn't have hoped for anything else."
"I'm sorry," Jasper Hardy announced; but did not mean it.
Gilbert told him so. "Moreover, I know how you got your money," the young
man was not afraid to say.
"I know how he got mine, gol darn it!" Uncle Henry cried.
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