Then she recognized both drivers . She dropped her milking pail and ran to the house , thinking as she ran . She knew that Judith was alone in the kitchen . If Eben King got there first , well and good , but if Bruce Marshall won the race he must encounter her , Mrs. Theodora . `` He wo n't propose to Judith as long as I 'm round , '' she panted . `` I know him -- he 's too shy . But Eben wo n't mind -- I 'll tip him the wink . '' Potter Vane was chopping wood before the door . Mrs. Theodora recognizing in him a further obstacle to Marshall 's wooing , caught him unceremoniously by the arm and hauled him , axe and all , over the doorstone and into the kitchen , just as Bruce Marshall and Eben King drove into the yard with not a second to spare between them . There was a woeful cut on Bay Billy 's slender foreleg and the reeking Lady Jane was trembling like a leaf . The staunch little mare had brought her master over that stretch of sticky field road in time , but she was almost exhausted . Both men sprang from their sleighs and ran to the door . Bruce Marshall won it by foot-room and burst into the kitchen with his rival hot on his heels . Mrs. Theodora stood defiantly in the middle of the room , still grasping the dazed and dismayed Potter . In a corner Judith turned from the window whence she had been watching the finish of the race . She was pale and tense from excitement . In those few gasping moments she had looked on her heart as on an open book ; she knew at last that she loved Bruce Marshall and her eyes met his fiery gray ones as he sprang over the threshold . `` Judith , will you marry me ? '' gasped Bruce , before Eben , who had first looked at Mrs. Theodora and the squirming Potter , had located the girl . `` Yes , '' said Judith .
She burst XXXXX hysterical tears as she said it and sat limply down in a chair .
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