“Ah, Mr. Rock,” said Levinger, as he signed a note of their contract, “it is very well for you to pretend that you are hard up; but I know well enough, notwithstanding the shocking times, that you are the warmest man in these parts. You see you began well, with plenty of capital; and though you rent some, you have been wise enough to keep your own land in hand, and not trust it to the tender mercies of a tenant. That, combined with good farming, careful living and hard work, is what has made you rich, when many others are on the verge of ruin. You ought to be getting a wife, Mr. Rock, and starting a family of your own, for if anything happened to you there is nowhere for the property to go.”
“We are in the Lord’s hands, sir, and man is but grass,” answered Samuel sententiously, though it was clear from his face that he did not altogether appreciate this allusion to his latter end. “Still, under the mercy of Heaven, having my health, and always being careful to avoid chills, I hope to see a good many younger men out yet. And as for getting married, Mr. Levinger, I think it is the whole duty of man, or leastways half of it, when he has earned enough to support a wife and additions which she may bring with her. But the thing is to find the woman, sir, for it isn’t every girl that a careful Christian would wish to wed.”
“Quite so, Mr. Rock. Have a glass of port, won’t you?”—and Mr. Levinger poured out some wine from a decanter which stood on the table and pushed it towards him. Then, taking a little himself by way of company, he added, “I should have thought that you could find a suitable person about here.”
“Your health, sir,” said Samuel, drinking off the port and setting down the glass, which Mr. Levinger refilled. “I am not saying, sir,” he added, “that such a girl cannot be found,—I am not even saying that I have not found such a girl: that’s one thing, marrying is another.”
“Ah! indeed,” said Mr. Levinger.
Again Samuel lifted his glass and drank half its contents. The wine was of the nature that is known as “full-bodied,” and, not having eaten for some hours, it began to take effect on him. Samuel grew expansive.
“I wonder, sir,” he said, “if I might take a liberty? I wonder if I might ask your advice? I should be grateful if you would give it to me, for I know that you have the cleverest head of any gentleman in these parts. Also, sir, you are no talker.”
“I shall be delighted if I can be of any service to an old friend and tenant like yourself,” answered Mr. Levinger airily. “What is the difficulty?”
Samuel finished the second glass of wine, and felt it go ever so little to his head; for which he was not sorry, as it made him eloquent.
“The difficulty is this, sir. Thank you—just a taste more. I don’t drink wine myself, as a rule—it is too costly; but this is real good stuff, and maketh glad the heart of man, as in the Bible. Well, sir, here it is in a nutshell: I want to marry a girl; I am dead set on it; but she won’t have me, or at least she puts me off.”