My turn came again at last, and I carried my fern to offer to Mistress Dorothy. She looked quite bright and pleased as she took it from my hands.
'I should never have thought of bringing it to you,' said Master Caleb.
He did not add what he had told me on the road, when it was too late to turn back, that it was not near good enough to give to her.
But I think she liked it. She took me into the parlour to see her water it, and made me tell her about the steep bank where it had grown, under waving trees and among primrose tufts.
'Pretty place,' she said smiling.
'Won't you come and see it some day, Mistress Dorothy?'
'Father cannot get away, and I never leave him.'
'Couldn't he spare you?'
She shook her head. 'Oh no, never.'
'But supposing you married and went away?' I asked.