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 "You'll have to fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-tuh keep good watch on her to see she don't up and run off on you. Girls in love are varmintsI'll tell you.—Let Little Joe come and take care of her. She'll soon learn to like him and before long they can get married. He can guard her from running off, too."

"Oh, God, to think that it would come to this!" exclaimed Colonel Lauriston. "To think that I would have to set a watch over a child of mine to keep her from harming herself and bringing disgrace on all of us."

"It's fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-tuh her own good, Park. Better fuh-fuh-fuh-tuh to guard her and marry her off to Little Joe than fuh-fuh-fuh-tuh have the other thing," stammered Old John Marley sententiously.

Colonel Lauriston looked long at the speaker, his disgust at the proposition causing him to writhe more and more inwardly. At last he spoke.

"John, I almost hate you." He stood and walked a short distance away then returned and continued, "but I guess I'll have to give in. Lida will balk."

"Fuh-fuh-fuh-tuh what do you fuh-fuh-tuh care? My John ain't a scarecrow."

"No.—Neither is a porpoise," Colonel Lauriston commented drily, looking at Old John's bulk. The latter merely gave a slight gesture with his hands.

"John needn't annoy her—and he won't. He'll just be around handy when she's out walking or riding."

Colonel Lauriston thought a moment then spoke. "John may not like the idea himself."