Page:Between Two Loves.djvu/147

143 hev to lay upon t' bed thou hes made for thysen."

"Father, I hev you, and there is nobody so loving and so true as you are."

"Now thou talks sensible. We got along as happy as could be before that fellow came between us, and we can do without him varry well indeed for t' future."

She stooped and kissed her Either for answer, and he held her white jewelled hands and stroked them fondly, and felt again very decidedly that he had "bested" his enemy. Still, as the sweet spring days, went by there was a weight upon them. Eleanor was loving and lovely, and she gave to Jonathan's life the sweet womanly flavor he always longed for, but the joy of her presence was like the joy of forbidden pleasure or the sweetness of stolen fruit.

And Anthony Aske's vengeance did not tarry. Jonathan had thought over his own ground carefully, and he had not been able to find any vulnerable place in his life for Aske's attack, excepting through Eleanor, and he imagined he was well prepared on that side. Nor did Anthony at first see in what precise way his father-in-law was to be ruined. But if there was