Leslie had made up her mind to pass for a teacher if she could , and then earn enough to put herself through Redmond College . That had been her father 's pet scheme -- he wanted her to have what he had lost . Leslie was full of ambition and her head was chock full of brains . She went to Queen 's , and she took two years ' work in one year and got her First ; and when she came home she got the Glen school . She was so happy and hopeful and full of life and eagerness . When I think of what she was then and what she is now , I say -- drat the men ! '' Miss Cornelia snipped her thread off as viciously as if , Nero-like , she was severing the neck of mankind by the stroke . `` Dick Moore came into her life that summer . His father , Abner Moore , kept store at the Glen , but Dick had a sea-going streak in him from his mother ; he used to sail in summer and clerk in his father 's store in winter . He was a big , handsome fellow , with a little ugly soul . He was always wanting something till he got it , and then he stopped wanting it -- just like a man . Oh , he did n't growl at the weather when it was fine , and he was mostly real pleasant and agreeable when everything went right . But he drank a good deal , and there were some nasty stories told of him and a girl down at the fishing village . He was n't fit for Leslie to wipe her feet on , that 's the long and short of it . And he was a Methodist ! But he was clean mad about her -- because of her good looks in the first place , and because she would n't have anything to say to him in the second . He vowed he 'd have her -- and he got her ! '' `` How did he bring it about ? '' `` Oh , it was an iniquitous thing ! I 'll never forgive Rose West .
You see , dearie , Abner Moore held the mortgage on the West farm , and the interest was overdue some years , and XXXXX just went and told Mrs. West that if Leslie would n't marry him he 'd get his father to foreclose the mortgage .
College Dick Glen Methodist Moore Queen West first second years