"
"Provided she be endowed with truth, character, and common mother instinct
enough to protect her young--yes--I grant it, and glory in it," said Mr.
Minturn. "I can furnish logic for one family, and most men I know feel
qualified to do the same."
"Surely!" agreed Leslie. "You were waiting for Nellie the night she came
from the tamarack swamp with me, and she told me you had a little box, and
that with its contents you had threatened to 'freeze her soul,' if she had
a soul. I'll be logical and fair, and ask but the _one_ question I first
stipulated. Here it is: did you wait until you made sure she had a soul,
worthy of your consideration, before you froze it?"
James Minturn's laugh was ugly to hear.
"My dear girl," he said. "I made sure she had _not_ three years ago."
"And I made equally sure that she had," said Leslie, "in the tamarack
swamp when she wrestled as Jacob at Peniel against her birth, her
environment, her wealth, and triumphed over all of them for you and her
sons. I can't go on with my own plan for personal happiness, until I know
for sure if you perfectly understand that she came to you that night to
confess to you her faults, errors, mistakes, sins, if need be, and ask you
to take the head of your household, and to help her fashion each hour of
her life anew.
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