"But Cousin Mary says she is 'not a young woman who is calculated'—"
They both laughed. "Nonsense! If she gets a master, she'll make him happy. A good-natured boy won't do. The gray mare would be the better horse. Marry her and beat her."
"Maitland will have to do the beating," he said. But he could not evade her.
"Don't be a fool. Take her! I know you want her."
"I do," he confessed. "But the little matter of her not wanting me seems to be an obstacle."
Miss Eliza, her old eagle head silhouetted against the dazzle of the lake, meditated; then she said, "Is she engaged to Mr. Maitland?"
"No, but she's going to be. Besides, dear lady, I am forty-seven and she is twenty-six. Youth calls to Youth! Please don't suggest that she might prefer to be an 'old man's darling.'"
"You're not an old man. But the average young man—if he fell in love with her—would be under her thumb."
"Why do you say 'if'? Maitland has fallen in love with her, head over heels! He can't stop talking about her brains for five minutes at a time!"