"You surely would not allow her to marry him?"
"How can I prevent it? She is her own mistress, and I never could control her yet. How can I control her when her whole heart and soul is set on him?"
"Good God!" said the Major, "do you really think she cares for him?"
"Oh, she loves him with her whole heart. I have seen it a long while."
"My dear friend, you should take her away for a short time, and see if she will forget him. Anything sooner than let her marry him."
"Why should she not marry him?" said the Vicar. "She is only a farmer's grand-daughter. We are nobody, you know."
"But he is not of good character."
"Oh, there is nothing more against him than there is against most young fellows. He will reform and be steady. Do you know anything special against him?" asked the Vicar.
"Not actually against him; but just conceive, my dear friend, what a family to marry into! His father, I speak the plain truth, is a most disreputable, drunken old man, living in open sin with a gipsy woman of the worst character, by whom George Hawker has been brought up. What an atmosphere of vice! The young fellow himself is universally disliked, and distrusted too, all over the village. Can you forgive me for speaking so plain?"
"There is no forgiveness necessary, my good friend;" said the Vicar. "I know how kind your intentions are. But I cannot bring myself to have a useless quarrel with my daughter merely because I happen to dislike the object of her choice. It would be quite a useless quarrel. She has always had her own way, and always will."