Now , is it ? For mercy 's sake do n't be so sly . You might tell me , your own and only sister , if it is . '' `` Oh , shut up , '' was Young Thomas 's unfeeling reply to his own and only sister . Young Thomas told himself that night that Valley View gossip would drive him into an asylum yet if it did n't let up . He also wondered if Adelia was as much persecuted as himself . No doubt she was . He never could catch her eye in church now , but he would have been surprised had he realized how many times he tried to . The climax came the third week in May , when Young Thomas , who had been keeping house for himself for three weeks , received a letter and an express box from his cousin , Charles Everett , out in Manitoba . Charles and he had been chums in their boyhood . They corresponded occasionally still , although it was twenty years since Charles had gone west . The letter was to congratulate Young Thomas on his approaching marriage . Charles had heard of it through some Valley View correspondents of his wife . He was much pleased ; he had always liked Adelia , he said -- had been an old beau of hers , in fact . Thomas might give her a kiss for him if he liked . He forwarded a wedding present by express and hoped they would be very happy , etc. . The present was an elaborate hatrack of polished buffalo horns , mounted on red plush , with an inset mirror . Young Thomas set it up on the kitchen table and scowled moodily at his reflection in the mirror . If wedding presents were beginning to come , it was high time something was done . The matter was past being a joke .
This affair of the present would certainly get out -- things always got out in Valley View , dang it all -- and he would never hear the last XXXXX it .
For although by if into of on since to with