“Don’t put it into Phil’s head that he can get more than a wife when he marries; ’twill do him a great deal more harm than good.”
“I’d like to see the dear boy so fixed that he won’t have to work so hard as you’ve had to do.”
“Then you’ll see him less of a man than his father, when he ought to be better. Isn’t that rather poor business for a mother in Israel to be in, old lady?”
“Well, anyhow, I believe Phil’s heart is set on makin’ a trip down to York.”
“Oh, is that all? Well, he’s been promised it, for some day, this long while. Something’s always prevented it, but I s’pose now would be as good a time as any. He deserves it; he’s as good a son as man ever had.”
Mrs. Hayn probably agreed with her husband as to the goodness of their son, but that was not the view of him in which she was interested just then. Said she,—
“If he goes, of course he’ll see her.”
Again the farmer sighed; then he said, quite earnestly,—
“Let him see her, then; the sooner he does it the sooner he’ll stop thinkin’ about her. Bless your dear foolish old heart, her ways and his are as far apart as Haynton and heaven when there’s a spiritual drought in this portion of the Lord’s vineyard.”
“I don’t think the Tramlays are so much better than we, if they have got money,” said Mrs. Hayn, with some indignation. “I always did say that you didn’t set enough store by yourself. Mrs. Tramlay is a nice enough woman, but I never could see how she was any smarter than I; and as to her husband, I always noticed that you generally held your own when the two of you were talking about anything.”