But I tell ye he's wo'th waiting for any length of time,
and I was glad to let him have his way."
Kenton, who was still a young man in his early thirties, respected
Beverley's reticence on the subject uppermost in his mind. Madame
Godere had told the whole story with flamboyant embellishments;
Kenton tiad seen Alice, and, inspired with the gossip and a
surreptitious glimpse of her beauty, he felt perfectly familiar
with Beverley's condition. He was himself a victim of the tender
passion to the extent of being an exile from his Virginia home,
which he had left on account of dangerously wounding a rival. But
he was well touched with the backwoodsman's taste for joke and
banter. He and Oncle Jazon, therefore, knowing the main feature of
Beverley's predicament, enjoyed making the most of their
opportunity in their rude but perfectly generous and kindly way.
By indirection and impersonal details, as regarded his feelings
toward Alice, Beverley in due time made his friends understand
that his whole ambition was centered in rescuing her. Nor did the
motive fail to enlist their sympathy to the utmost. If all the
world loves a lover, all men having the best virile instinct will
fight for a lover's cause. Both Kenton and Oncle Jazon were
enthusiastic; they wanted nothing better than an opportunity to
aid in rescuing any girl who had shown so much patriotism and
pluck.
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