At this moment the shutters of the front window, which had been closed, were opened, and Asaph put in his head. “Look here, Thomas Rooper,” he said, “these shoes is pegged. I didn’t bargain for no pegged shoes; I wanted ’em sewed; everything was to be first-class.”
Mr. Rooper, who had been leaning forward in his chair, his hands upon his knees, and his face glistening with his expressed feelings as brightly as the old-fashioned but shining silk hat which stood on the floor by his side, turned his head, grew red to the ears, and then sprang to his feet. “Asaph Scantle,” he cried, with extended fist, “you have broke your word; you hindered.”
“No, I didn’t,” said Asaph, sulkily; “but pegged shoes is too much for any man to stand.” And he withdrew from the window, closing the shutters again.
“What does this mean?” asked Mrs. Himes, who had also risen.
“It means,” said Thomas, speaking with difficulty, his indignation was so great, “that your brother is a person of tricks and meanders beyond the reach of common human calculation. I don’t like to say this of a man who is more or less likely to be my brother-in-law, but I can’t help sayin’ it, so entirely upset am I at his goin’ back on me at such a minute.”
“Going back on you?” asked Mrs. Himes. “What do you mean? What has he promised?”
Thomas hesitated. He did not wish to interrupt his courtship by the discussion of any new question, especially this question. “If we could settle what we have been talkin’ about, Mrs. Himes,” he said, “and if you would give me my answer, then I could git my mind down to commoner things. But swingin’ on a hook as I am, I don’t know whether my head or my heels is uppermost, or what’s revolvin’ around me.”
“Oh, I can give you your answer quickly enough,” she said. “It is impossible for me to marry you, so that’s all settled.”
“Impossible is a big word,” said Mr. Rooper. “Has anybody else got afore me?”
“I am not bound to answer that question,” said Marietta, slightly coloring; “but I cannot accept you, Mr. Rooper.”