“Poor Polyphemus! no wonder his Galatea shuns him.”
“Old Wiles is terribly frightened, and asked my wife to find Jessie a place as servant at a distance. But Jessie can’t bear the thoughts of leaving.”
“For the same reason which attaches Will Somers to the native soil?”
“My wife thinks so.”
“Do you believe that if Tom Bowles were out of the way, and Jessie and Will were man and wife, they could earn a sufficient livelihood as successors to Mrs. Bawtrey, Will adding the profits of his basket-work to those of the shop and land?”
“A sufficient livelihood! of course. They would be quite rich. I know the shop used to turn a great deal of money. The old woman, to be sure, is no longer up to the business, but still she retains a good custom.”
“Will Somers seems in delicate health. Perhaps if he had a less weary struggle for a livelihood, and no fear of losing Jessie, his health would improve.”
“His life would be saved, sir.”
“Then,” said Kenelm, with a heavy sigh and a face as long as an undertaker’s, “though I myself entertain a profound compassion for that disturbance to our mental equilibrium which goes by the name of ‘love,’ and I am the last person who ought to add to the cares and sorrows which marriage entails upon its victims,—I say nothing of the woes destined to those whom marriage usually adds to a population already overcrowded,—I fear that I must be the means of bringing these two love-birds into the same cage. I am ready to purchase the shop and its appurtenances on their behalf, on the condition that you will kindly obtain the consent of Jessie’s father to their union. As for my brave friend Tom Bowles, I undertake to deliver them and the village from that exuberant nature, which requires a larger field for its energies. Pardon me for not letting you interrupt me. I have not yet finished what I have to say. Allow me to ask if Mrs. Grundy resides in this village.”
“Mrs. Grundy! Oh, I understand. Of course; wherever a woman has a tongue, there Mrs. Grundy has a home.”