“Sam started for the open air. I hated to be ha’sh with him, but he needed some education himself, an’ it took a beetle an’ wedge to open his mind for it. He lifted his chin so high that the fat swelled out on the back of his neck an’ unbuttoned his collar. Then he turned an’ said: ‘My daughter is too good for this town, an’ I don’t intend that she shall stay here. She has been asked to marry a man o’ fortune in the old country.’
“‘So I surmise, an’ I suppose you find that the price o’ husbands has gone up,’ I says.
“Sam didn’t answer me.
“‘They want you to settle some money on the girl—don’t they?’ I asked.
“‘My wife says it’s the custom in the old country,’ says Sam.
“‘Suppose he ain’t worth the price?’
“‘They say he’s a splendid fellow,’ says Sam.
“‘You let me investigate him,’ I says, ‘an’ if he’s really worth the price I’ll help ye to pay it.’
“Sam said that was fair, an’ thanked me for the offer, an’ gave me the young man’s address. He was a Russian by the name of Alexander Rolanoff, an’ Sam insisted that he belonged to a very old family of large means an’ noble blood, an’ said that the young man would be in Pointview that summer. I wrote to the mayor of the city in which he was said to live, but got no answer.
“Alexander came. He was a costly an’ beautiful young man, about thirty years old, with red cheeks an’ curly hair an’ polished finger-nails, an’ wrote poetry. Sometimes ye meet a man that excites yer worst suspicions. Your right hand no sooner lets go o’ his than it slides down into your pocket to see if anything has happened; or maybe you take the arm o’ yer wife or yer daughter an’ walk away. Aleck leaned a little in both directions. But, sir, Sam didn’t care to know my opinion of him. Never said another word to me on the subject, but came again to ask about the money.