"Well, he's been to our house pretty often since that night. Father likes him, though mother doesn't. Sometimes he meets me when I'm out, and comes a little way with me . . . I don't see why he shouldn't! . . . I'm sure he's such a nice steady fellow; and he wants to work, only he has been so unfortunate. But he'll get something regular soon . . . I don't see why I need snub him, like mother does, only because he's been unfortunate."
"But he did get work. What made him give it up?"
"He said it wasn't the right sort. It wasn't what he is fitted for. He'd like something to do with horses."
"And if he gets the horses, I suppose he'll want something next to do with cows and sheep." The keenness of this rejoinder made Marigold stare at Narcissus, and Narcissus relented. "Please don't think me unkind, only people do say things—"
"People say very unkind things—people who don't know James. I shouldn't think you need, Narcissus . . . I'm sure it is no wonder if I do find a friend out of the house, now home is so different. Father is away all the day, and you are away, and she is so cross. It's a comfort to have somebody to speak a kind word. And James is always kind . . . I don't mean that anything is settled . . . James hasn't exactly asked me—and we're not engaged. But I can't help seeing and knowing—what he feels . . . Mother did say one day that father wouldn't allow anything of the sort, and that made me know that she saw it too. But I don't see how she can be sure what father would like. He always seems glad to have James come in. It's only mother who is disagreeable to him. And he is so quiet and steady—"
"Is he steady?"
"Why, Narcissus!—Yes."
"I've heard that he takes too much sometimes."
"He doesn't! I don't believe it. If I thought he did—"
"You wouldn't marry a man that drinks! You couldn't be happy with a man you couldn't respect."