“She is well and happy, but no longer in service anywhere. She is married to John Legg, the greengrocer of your native village, Medge. So I have not had the pleasure of making her acquaintance,” Longman replied, with a laugh.
“The Lord above us! Well, I did sort of hope she was an old-maid woman as would have been a housekeeper and a daughter to myself in my old days. Well, and now she is married, and, I do dare say, with a baker’s dozen of children. Yes, that is so,” said Dandy, with a heavy sigh.
“No, but it isn’t so. She only married a few months ago, when she was over forty years old, and John Legg, the widower, who took her for his second wife, over fifty; so she has no baker’s dozen of children as yet.”
“Oh, I’s warrant he has a house full o’ young uns for her to be stepmother to! And that will be a heap worse than if the wench had a score of her own! It is as bad as if I had found her dead! Yes, that is so,” sighed Dandy.
“No, it isn’t so. You are all out again. John Legg has no children at home. He has a son and daughter, and gave them both a grand education above his means, and to repay him they did all they could to break his heart. They had worldly ambitions above their state, and despised the calling of their father. The son took ‘holy orders,’ not for the love of the Lord or the neighbor, but for love of self and the world. He became a professional preacher only, not a minister of religion. Mr. Hay,” said the speaker, suddenly turning toward Ran, “I shall presently have something to say to you in reference to this man, in which you have an especial interest.”
“Thank you, Longman. I will remember to remind you of it,” replied Ran.
“Now will you please go on telling me about the family my niece married into?” said Dandy impatiently.
“Certainly!” smiled Longman, good-humoredly. “The son utterly ignores his father and hangs on the skirts of influential people; but as yet has had but little success. The daughter went out as a governess, less it seems to be of service to children than to seek her own fortune, through her beauty, among the rich and noble. She also ignores her father. Both these hopefuls are ‘married and settled,’ to use the common phrase. And the newly-wedded, middle-aged couple are alone.”
“And what could have tempted my gal to agone and married of a old widdyman, whose son and darter had showed sich bad blood?”
“Well, to get out of service, perhaps; to have a house and home and a good husband, whom she could love, in this John Legg.”