FORE:At three o'clock the poll stood at two hundred and twelve and eighty-three. Then came the closeCaptain MacKinnon elected by a majority of sixty-nine.Sometimes he would expostulate with her, and when[Pg 266] she met his expostulations with blandishments, he would feel himself yielding, and grow so furious that he would turn upon her in rage and indignation. Rose was not like Naomi; in her own words "she gave as good as she got," and once or twice, for the first time in his life, Reuben found himself in loud and vulgar altercation with a female. He had never before had a woman stand up to him, and the experience was humiliating.
FORE:"Nothingthe kiss'll be enough for me. I've been wanting to know what he was like to kiss for many a long day."He also missed her in the househer soft pale face and gentle ways. He forgot the sallowness and the peevishness of later years, and pictured her always with creamy roseal skin and timid voice. He was the only one who missed her. Mrs. Backfield's softer feelings seemed to have been atrophied by hard workshe grew daily more and more like a machine; the children were too young to care much, and Harry was incapable of regret. However, the strange thing about Harry was that he did indeed seem to miss someone, but not Naomi. For the first time since little Fanny's death he began to ask for her, and search for her about the house"Where's the pretty baby?oh, save the pretty baby!" he would wail"she's gone, she's gonethe pretty baby's gone."