"And now here's the point," he went on, still holding her fingers; "Silas is going to settle down and be steady. He wrote to me about three months ago, from Boston, and said he'd got work there as a ship-carpenter, and had quit his wild ways, and wasn't going to call on me for any more money. Well, he has kept his own word about the money, and by that I judge he's all right, earning an honest living, and doing as he said. But he likes living in the city better than down here on the beach. And now do you know what would do more than anything else to keep him steady?"
Mary shook her head. She had an idea of what he meant, but did not wish to encourage him in the direction he was tending.
"A good wife would," said Uncle Thatcher very decidedly.
"Then I hope he will succeed in finding one in Boston," replied the girl, with purposeful evasion of the direct attack.
"That's not my idea. I don't want him to marry a Boston girl. I've got my eye on a girl who I know is all that a good wife should be, the very one that Silas ought to have. You know who I mean. It's you, Mary."
"A girl should never marry a man she doesn't love, uncle, and I don't love Silas."
He bit his lips, was silent for a moment, and then resumed: "You're only a girl, yet, and can't rightly be expected to know your own mind; and besides, it's three years since you have seen Silas. You don't know how you might feel towards him if you were to see him again now."
She shook her head, for she thought she did know very well, as she mentally put Silas and Dorn in contrast, but did not answer.
"I hope," he continued, viewing her with a little growing suspicion, "that you've got over that childish notion you had once about that young Hackett chap. He's gone, the Lord knows where, and I'll be bound, never thinks of you any more. Now, if you marry Silas, I can give you a good start in life. I'm not poor, and if you and Silas prefer to live in the city, why I'll furnish a house for you there nicely, and start him in some business, and—"
"Oh, no, no, uncle! Please do not talk any more about it. I can't marry Silas. Indeed, I can't."