In Pawn Author:Ellis Parker Butler General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1921 Original Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co. Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where yo... more »u can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER IV While Lorna Percy was in Susan Redding's kitchen acting as a witness to the compact that placed Lem Redding in pawn to his aunt for a period that seemed likely to be extended indefinitely, another lady had come down the front stairs, and after greeting the young woman on the front porch, had occupied one of the chairs. This was Miss Henrietta Bates. " I thought Lorna was here," she said, as she seated herself. "Didn't I hear her voice?" " Miss Susan called her into the kitchen," said the other. " I think she will be out in a moment." Miss Henrietta held up an envelope. "See what I've got?" she said, smiling. "Not another letter from Bill?" " Just that," said Henrietta. "And the dearest letter! There's a part I want to read to you and Lorna. I don't bore you with my Bill, do I, Gay?" "Bore? What an idea!" "Sometimes I'm afraid I do. If it wasn't that his letters are so intelligent. They don'tseem to me like ordinary love-letters. They don't seem to you like the common wishy-washy stuff men write, do they?" "Well, you know I have no experience in love-letters -- " "Poor Gay!" said Miss Bates, and laughed. "But I do think I'm fortunate in having a man like Bill choose me, don't you? I do wish he could come East this summer. I wish you and Lorna could meet him. He's so -- so different from the men here." The three, who had become close friends, were school teachers, and that was how two of them happened to be boarding at Miss Redding's, which was an exceptionally pleasant boarding- house. This was the third year Lorna Percy had boarded with Mi...« less