After a little while
Martha came in, dragging after her a great tall young man, all
crimson with shyness, and finding his only relief in perpetually
sleeking down his hair.
"Please, ma'am, he's only Jem Hearn," said Martha, by way of an
introduction; and so out of breath was she that I imagine she had
had some bodily struggle before she could overcome his reluctance
to be presented on the courtly scene of Miss Matilda Jenkyns's
drawing-room.
"And please, ma'am, he wants to marry me off-hand. And please,
ma'am, we want to take a lodger--just one quiet lodger, to make our
two ends meet; and we'd take any house conformable; and, oh dear
Miss Matty, if I may be so bold, would you have any objections to
lodging with us? Jem wants it as much as I do." [To Jem ]--"You
great oaf! why can't you back me!--But he does want it all the
same, very bad--don't you, Jem?--only, you see, he's dazed at being
called on to speak before quality."
"It's not that," broke in Jem. "It's that you've taken me all on a
sudden, and I didn't think for to get married so soon--and such
quick words does flabbergast a man. It's not that I'm against it,
ma'am" (addressing Miss Matty), "only Martha has such quick ways
with her when once she takes a thing into her head; and marriage,
ma'am--marriage nails a man, as one may say.
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