‘I don’t look on marriage as a thing to be approached i’ that fashion,’ said Thistlewood.
‘Well,’ returned the old woman, clicking her needles with added rapidity, ‘I’ve always said there’s no end to the folly o’ men. D’ye hear that there cuckoo? Go and catch him wi’ shoutin’ at him. An’ when next you’re in want of toast at tay-time, soak your bread in a pan o’ cold water.’
Thistlewood stood for a time in a rather dogged-looking silence, sometimes glancing at the notable woman and glancing away again. Her eye expressed a triumph which, though purely dialectic, was hard for a disappointed lover to endure, even whilst he refused to recognise his disappointment.
‘I should regard any such means of gettin’ into a maid’s good graces as being despisable,’ he said, after a while.
‘Very well, my Christian friend,’ the farmer’s wife retorted, with a laugh. ‘Them as mek bread without barm must look to spoil the batch.’
‘I was niver of a flatterin’ turn of mind,’ said Thistlewood.
‘You niver was, John,’ responded Mrs. Fellowes, with an accent which implied something beyond assent.
He flushed a little, and began to tap at his corduroyed leg with the stick he carried, at first with a look of shamefaced discomfiture, and then with resolution. He finished with a resounding slap, and looked up with a light in his eyes.
‘I’m pretty hard to beat, ma’am,’ he said, ‘though I say it as should not. I’m not going to be conquered here if I can help it. And I look to have you and Mr. Fellowes on my side, as far as may be asked in reason. Her’ll find no better husband than I should be to her, I am sure. There’s more than a wheedlin’ tongue required to mek a married woman happy. I’ve pretty well proved as I’m not changeable. There’s a strong arm to tek care of her. There’s a homely house with plenty in it. There’s a goodish lump at the bank, and there’s nothing heart can desire as her might not have by asking for it.’
‘Well, John,’ said the farmer’s wife, clicking her needles cheerfully, ‘I’ve not a word to say again the match. Win the wench and welcome. My dancin’ days is pretty nigh over, but I’ll tek the floor once more with pleasure, if you won’t be too long in mekin’ ready for me.’