"He shouldn't want you to go out after dark with him," observed Gerhardt, always mindful of the world outside. "What can he want with you. Why does he come here? He is too old, anyhow. I don't think you ought to have anything to do with him—such a young girl as you are."
"He doesn't want to do anything except help me," murmured Jennie. "He wants to marry me."
"Marry you? Ha! Why doesn't he tell me that!" exclaimed Gerhardt. "I shall look into this. I won't have him running around with my daughter, and the neighbors talking. Besides, he is too old. I shall tell him that. He ought to know better than to put a girl where she gets talked about. It is better he should stay away altogether."
This threat of Gerhardt's, that he would tell Brander to stay away, seemed simply terrible to Jennie a
