"She's one in a
hundred, in a thousand. She has the sweetest way in the world with
her, too. A body couldn't see her an' not love her. I guess there's
many a young feller along the Cape thinks so too, or I'm much
mistaken," added she slyly. "She must have a score of beaux."
"Beaux!" snapped Zenas Henry, wheeling abruptly about. "Indeed she
hasn't. Why, she's nothin' but a child yet."
"She's most twenty. You said so yourself just now."
"Pooh! Twenty! What's twenty?" Zenas Henry cried derisively. "Why,
I'm three times that already an' more too, an' I ain't old. So are
you, Tiny. Twenty? Nonsense!"
"But Delight is twenty, Zenas Henry," persisted Celestina.
"What of it?"
"Well, you mustn't forget it, that's all," continued the woman softly.
"Many a girl her age is married an'----"
"Married!" burst out the man with indignation. "What under heaven are
you talkin' about, Celestina? Delight marry? Not she! She's too
young. Besides, she's well enough content with Abbie an' the three
captains an' me. Marry? Delight marry! Ridiculous!"
"But you don't mean to say you expect a creature as pretty as she is
not to marry," said Celestina aghast.
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