`` Stay here ! '' said Uncle Paul abruptly . `` Stay here with me . I want you , Worth . Let Greenwood be your home henceforth and adopt your crusty old bachelor uncle for a father . '' `` Oh , Uncle Paul , '' cried Worth , `` I do n't know -- I do n't think -- oh , you surprise me ! '' `` I surprise myself , perhaps . But I mean it , Worth . I am a rich , lonely old man and I want to keep this new interest you have brought into my life . Stay with me . I will try to give you a very happy life , my child , and all I have shall be yours . '' Seeing her troubled face , he added , `` There , I do n't ask you to decide right here . I suppose you have other claims to adjust . Take time to think it over . '' `` Thank you , '' said Worth . She went back to the Grange as one in a dream and shut herself up in the white southeast room to think . She knew that she wanted to accept this unexpected offer of Uncle Paul 's . Worth 's loyal tongue had never betrayed , even to the loving aunts , any discontent in the prairie farm life that had always been hers . But it had been a hard life for the girl , narrow and poverty-bounded . She longed to put forth her hand and take this other life which opened so temptingly before her .
She knew , too , that her mother , ambitious XXXXX her child , would not be likely to interpose any objections .
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