In the evening the two men sat on the front porch of the farmhouse and
talked of the town and the big things that were to be done there. They
spoke of Hugh, and Buckley, an energetic, talkative fellow with a long jaw
and restless gray eyes who had come from New York City, suggested schemes
for using him. Clara gathered that there was a plan on foot to get control
of Hugh's future inventions and thereby gain an advantage over Steve
Hunter.
The whole matter puzzled Clara. Alfred Buckley had asked her to marry him
and she had put the matter off. The proposal had been a formal thing, not
at all what she had expected from a man she was to take as a partner for
life, but Clara was at the moment very seriously determined upon marriage.
The New York man was at her father's house several evenings every week.
She had never walked about with him nor had they in any way come close to
each other. He seemed too much occupied with work to be personal and had
proposed marriage by writing her a letter. Clara got the letter from the
post-office and it upset her so that she felt she could not for a time go
into the presence of any one she knew. "I am unworthy of you, but I want
you to be my wife. I will work for you. I am new here and you do not know
me very well. All I ask is the privilege of proving my merit. I want you to
be my wife, but before I dare come and ask you to do me so great an honor I
feel I must prove myself worthy," the letter said.
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