“I found,” pursued Oddity very quietly, “that Will Grange, my master, was going to London, to be married to the young woman whom he had spoken of as Mary. We travelled to the city together, I snugly sleeping, coiled up in his pocket.”
“And were you given to the lady?” said Whiskerandos.
“I was placed before her on a table, in a quiet little back-parlour, in which she and my master sat together. She admired my appearance.”
“No, no!” interrupted I, “that’s impossible, I can believe anything but that!”
“Well, then, she wished to gratify my master by appearing to do so. She praised me, and fed me from her hand, and said that such a rat she never had seen in her life. Then I crept under my master’s chair, and there very quietly remained, while he and his Mary talked over future plans together.
“He told her of the various things that he had bought to make his home more comfortable for his wife. How he had planted the garden himself with all her favourite flowers, and twined honeysuckle over his porch. Then he took her hand within his own, and in a lower and softer voice asked her if she were happy.
“‘Very happy,’ she replied, looking on the ground, while her cheek grew like a cloud at sunrise; ‘only I cannot help feeling sorry,’—her voice trembled a little as she spoke,—‘sorry to leave father, and home, and the dear children in the ragged school whom I have taught so long!’ I fancy,” continued my brother, “that something like a dewdrop glistened on her lashes.
“‘Well, Mary,’ said the farmer heartily, ‘father will come and see us; and as for your old home, why, you get a new one in exchange, and fair exchange is no robbery, you know. Then for your ragged children, why, I’m wanting an active, steady boy on my farm, and though I’ve no great fancy for your pale-faced Londoners, yet if you know any really good one, we’ll take him down with us into Kent.’
“You should have seen how much pleased the young teacher looked! She knew one, she said, a poor motherless boy,—she would be so glad to give him a helping hand. He was one of the best boys in the school,—she would trust him in a room full of gold!
“So it was agreed between them that she should speak to the lad, and tell him to call in the evening.