And, since
the said Sarah was of nearly the same age as Seffy, perhaps I need not
explain further, except to say that the only obstruction the old man
could see now to acquiring the title by marriage was--Seffy himself. He
was, and always had been, afraid of girls--especially such aggressive,
flirtatious, pretty and tempestuous girls as this Sarah.
These things, however, were hereditary with the girl. It was historical,
in fact, that, during the life of Sarah's good-looking father, so
importunate had been Old Baumgartner for the purchase of at least the
meadow--he could not have ventured more at that time--and so obstinate
had been the father of the present owner--(he had red hair precisely as
his daughter had)--that they had come to blows about it, to the
discomfiture of Old Baumgartner; and, afterward, they did not speak.
Yet, when the loafers at the store laughed, Baumgartner swore that he
would, nevertheless, have that pasture before he died.
But then, as if fate, too, were against him, the railroad was built, and
its station was placed so that the Pressel farm lay directly between it
and him, and of course the "life" went more and more in the direction
of the station--left him more and more "out of it"--and made him poorer
and poorer, and Pressel richer and richer.
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