Her answer completely flabbergasted him:
"No; because you didn't have all that money then."
"Gee whiz, Pheeny!" he gasped. "What you got against Uncle Loren's
money? It ain't a disease, is it? It's not ketchin', is it?"
"No," she sobbed; "but we--Well, when you were so poor and all, I
thought you might--you might really like me because I could be of
some--of some use to you; but now you--you needn't think I'm goin' to
hold you to any--anything against your will."
Eddie realized that across the street somebody had stopped to listen.
Eddie wanted to throw a rock at whoever it was, but Ellaphine absorbed
him as she wailed:
"It 'd be just like you to be just's nice to me as ever; but I'm not
goin' to tie you down to any homely old crow like me when you got money
enough to marry anybody. You can get Luella Thickins back now. You could
marry the Queen of England if you'd a mind to."