quietly, "I don't believe it." And as Mrs. Perkins had no tangible
proofs of Abner Dimock's unfitness to marry Judge Hyde's daughter, the
lady in question got the better of her adviser, so far as any argument
was concerned, and effectually put an end to remonstrance by declaring
with extreme quiet and unblushing front,--

"I am going to marry him next week. Will you be so good as to notify Mr.
Perkins?"

Mrs. Perkins held up both hands and cried. Words might have hardened
Hitty; but what woman that was not half tigress ever withstood another
woman's tears?

Hitty's heart melted directly; she sat down by Mrs. Perkins, and cried,
too.

"Please, don't be vexed with me," sobbed she. "I love him, Mrs. Perkins,
and I haven't got anybody else to love,--and--and--I never shall have.
He's very good to love me,--I am so old and homely."

"Very good!" exclaimed Mrs. Perkins, in great wrath, "_good_! to marry
Judge Hyde's daughter, and--fifty thousand dollars," Mrs. Perkins bit
off. She would not put such thoughts into Hitty's head, since her
marriage was inevitable.

"At any rate," sighed Hitty, on the breath of a long-drawn sob, "nobody
else ever loved me, if I am Judge Hyde's daughter."

So Mrs. Perkins went away, and declared that things had gone too far to
be prevented; and Abner Dimock came on her retreating steps, and Hitty