"Zeke says Jeb's about the likeliest young fellow he knows--a likelier fellow than either Zeke or I was at his age.

I've given him two thousand dollars in cash.

That ought to start you off well." And he went out without venturing another look at her.

Her youth and helplessness, her stony misery, were again making it harder for him to hold himself to what he and the fanatic Zeke had decided to be his duty as a Christian, as a father, as a guardian.

Besides, he did not dare face his wife and his daughter until the whole business was settled respectably and finally.
His sister-in-law was waiting in the next room.