"
"Isn't he?" Sam flung back at him, "well, what of that? I'm glad of
it; I hate him." He stood up, his hands clenched, his head flung back.
"What difference does it make to me what he is? Her cousin, her
friend--what do I care? If she marries me, what do I care for
relations?"
His grandfather looked up at him aghast; the young, insulted innocence
of love blazed in the boy's face. "Gad-a-mercy," said Mr. Wright, in a
whisper, "_he doesn't understand!_" He pulled himself on to his
shaking legs, and laid his hand on the young man's shoulder. "Sam," he
said very gently, "he is her lover, my boy." Sam's lips fell apart;
he gasped heavily; his hands slowly opened and shut, and he swayed
from side to side; his wild eyes were fixed on that old face, all
softened and moved and pitying. Then, with a discordant shriek of
laughter, he flung out his open hand and struck his grandfather full
in the face.
"You old fool! You lie! You lie! Do you hear me?"
Benjamin Wright, staggering slightly from the blow, tried to speak,
but the boy, still laughing shrilly, leaped down the porch steps, and
out into the darkness.
"I'll ask her!" he screamed back; "you liar!"
CHAPTER XXIII
Helena had gone up-stairs to put David to bed. There was some delay
in the process, because the little boy wished to look at the stars,
and trace out the Dipper. That accomplished however, he was very
docile, and willing to get into bed by shinning up the mast of a
pirate-ship--which some people might have called a bedpost.
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