“Where have you been?” she demanded. “I've been waiting and waiting for you.”
“I've been down below in a place they call the Rat Cellar, or some such name,” he said. “The rats was there, two of 'em, anyhow. And I'd met one of 'em before. I know I have. I wish I could think who he was. A sort of--”
“Daniel,” she interrupted, “it is all settled. I have made up my mind.”
Her voice was tremulous with excitement. Captain Dan looked at her.
“Made up your mind?” he repeated. “I want to know! What about?”
“About our plans and our future, Daniel; my opportunity has come, the opportunity I was wishing for. It has been sent to me by Providence, I do believe--and it would be wicked not to take advantage of it. Daniel, you and I must move to Scarford.”
“Why--why, Serena,” he faltered. “What are you talkin' about? DON'T talk so! Move to Scarford! Give up Trumet and--”
“Trumet! Don't mention Trumet to me. Daniel Dott, you'll never get me back to Trumet again--to live there, I mean--never, never, NEVER!”
Captain Dan said--Well, it does not matter much what he said. He said a great deal, of course, during that evening and the next morning, and would have kept on saying it all the way to Trumet if his wife had not declined to listen.
“It is no use, Daniel,” she declared calmly but firmly. “I have thought it all out and I KNOW it is the right thing for us to do. You will think so, too, one of these days.”
“Hush! you're telling everybody in the car, and THAT isn't necessary, at any rate. Now we won't argue any more until we get home. Then you can say your say; but”--with discouraging candor--“it won't change my decision a single mite. My mind is made up. A higher power than you or me has settled everything for us. We are going to Scarford to live, and we will go just as soon as we can get ready.”
And go they did. The captain fought a stubborn battle, surprisingly stubborn and protracted for him, but he surrendered at last. Serena drove him from one line of entrenchments after the other, and, at length, when she had him in the last ditch, where, argument and expostulation unavailing, he could only say, “No! no, I won't, I tell you!” over and over again, she used her most effective weapon, tears, and brought him to terms.