"He can't marry her, and you know it as well as I.Then there is something else," he added, as a sudden recollection flashed over his mind: "he was out riding horseback with Lucina Merritt Monday." "I don't believe a word of it," his mother said, hotly.
"I saw him." "Well, what of it if he did?
She's the only girl here that rides horseback, an' I s'pose he wanted company.

Mebbe her father asked him to go with her in case her horse got scared at anything.

I shouldn't be a mite surprised if he had to go and couldn't help himself.

He wouldn't like to refuse if he was asked." "Mother, you know that Lucina Merritt is the only girl in this town that Doctor Prescott would think was fit to marry his son, and you know his family have always had to do just as he said." "I don't know any such thing," returned his mother; her voice of dissent had the shrill persistency of a cricket's.

"Doctor Prescott always took a sight of notice of Elmira when she was a little girl and he used to come here.