If you loved me , I fear I should be weak enough to do you the wrong of wooing you . I want you so much , dear ! The schoolmaster added the last letter to the others and locked the box . When he unlocked it again , two days later , the letters were gone . He gazed at the empty box with dilated eyes . At first he could not realize what had happened . The letters could not be gone ! He must have made a mistake , have put them in some other place ! With trembling fingers he ransacked his trunk . There was no trace of the letters . With a groan he dropped his face in his hands and tried to think . His letters were gone -- those precious letters , held almost too sacred for his own eyes to read after they were written -- had been stolen from him ! The inmost secrets of his soul had been betrayed . Who had done this hideous thing ? He rose and went downstairs . In the farmyard he found Link tormenting his dog . Link was happy only when he was tormenting something . He never had been afraid of anything in his life before , but now absolute terror took possession of him at sight of the schoolmaster 's face . Physical strength and force had no power to frighten the sullen lad , but all the irresistible might of a fine soul roused to frenzy looked out in the young man 's blazing eyes , dilated nostrils , and tense white mouth . It cowed the boy , because it was something he could not understand .
He only realized that he was in the presence of a force that was not to be trifled XXXXX .
If In at because farmyard first for of to with