Betty shuddered.
"How much longer will he be confined to the house ?" she asked.
"I heard him 'low to Mas'r Carrington, Miss, as how he reckoned he'd take a hossback ride to-morrow evenin' if the black and blue was all come out of his features--" "Oh--" gasped Betty.
"Seems like they was mighty careless whar' they put their feet, don't it, Miss ?" said Jeff.
It was this information she gleaned from Jeff that led Betty to desperate lengths, to the making of what her cooler judgment told her was a desperate bargain.
At Thicket Point Charley Norton, greatly excited, hobbled into the library in search of Carrington.

He found him reading by the open window.
"Look here, Bruce!" he cried.

"It's settled; she's going to marry me!" The book slipped unheeded from Carrington's hand to the floor.

For a moment he sat motionless, then he slowly pulled himself up out of his chair.
"What's that ?" he asked a trifle thickly.
"Betty Malroy is going to marry me," said Norton.

Carrington gazed at him in silence.
"It's settled, is it ?" he asked at length.