The Captain and Maria.
When the captain drove into Glenford on the day when his mind had been so much disturbed by Dick Lancaster's questions regarding a marriage between him and Maria Port, he stopped at no place of business, he turned not to the right nor to the left, but went directly to the house of his old friend with whom he had spent the night before.
Mr. Simeon Port was sitting on his front porch, reading his newspaper. He looked up, surprised to see the captain again so soon.
"Simeon," said the captain, "I want to see Maria. I have something to say to her."
The old man laid down his newspaper. "Serious?" said he.
"Yes, serious," was the answer, "and I want to see her now."
Mr. Port reflected for a moment. "Captain," said he, "do you believe you have thought about this as much as you ought to?"
"Yes, I have," replied the captain; "I've thought just as much as I ought to. Is she in the house?"
Mr. Port did not answer. "Captain John," said he presently, "Maria isn't young, that's plain enough, considerin' my age; but she never does seem to me as if she'd growed up. When she was a girl she had ways of her own, and she could make water bile quick, and now she can make it bile just as quick as ever she did, and perhaps quicker. She's not much on mindin' the helm, Captain John, and there're other things about her that wouldn't be attractive to husbands when they come to find them out. And if I was you I'd take my time."
"That's just what I intend to do," said the captain. "This is my time, and I am going to take it."