"Mother, I saw Miss Sophy Coxen when I went out for you."
"Well, and what did she say?"
"She said she wondered how soon Jack and Jessie were going to be married."
"I don't see as that's her business, nor anybody's business except Jack's and ours. Miss Sophy does love to meddle, that she does." Mrs. Groates could not easily forget that Miss Sophy's meddling had caused Jack a good deal of unhappiness already in the past. "Next time Miss Sophy says anything of that sort, you can just tell her that there isn't any manner of hurry. Miss Perkins means Jessie to be a good dressmaker before she thinks about marrying, and Jack means to lay something by in the Savings Bank too, and he's right. A man's got no sort of business to marry till he's a fair prospect of being able to keep wife and children in comfort."
"Jack says so too, mother."
"Jack always was a sensible boy, and he ain't selfish either, like a lot of young fellows, who think of nothing in the world but what they want for themselves. A man ought to look ahead, and think what life is going to be, and not go plunging blindly along, without a notion of what lies before him. I wouldn't for anything have those two marry all in a hurry, and settle down in one little poky messy room, and use up every penny they can earn, and then go on from bad to worse, getting poorer every year, just because they began too soon, and never had a fair start."
"Jack don't manage to lay by much now."
"No, I know; and I've been speaking to your father, and telling him things can't go on so. Jack's a good son, but it's time he should look-out for a better post for himself somewhere else, in a bigger shop. He ought to be making a deal more than his father can give him now. It's time Jack should act, for Jessie's sake."
"What did father say?"
"He don't say much, and I can't get him to say much. I don't know as I understand your father just now. He seems so down, and not like himself. He just said, 'If it must be, it must be,' and I could see he didn't like me saying what I did. But Jack has got to be thought about."