He found that the task would be difficult, and as he went he considered within his mind how best it might be accomplished.  He had put a prayer-book in his pocket, without giving it much thought; but before he knocked at the door he had assured himself that the prayer-book would not be of avail.  He would not know how to begin to use it, and felt that it would be ridiculed.  He must leave that to Dolly or to the clergyman.  He could talk to the girls; but they would not care about the affairs of the firm; and, in truth, he did not know what they would care about.  With Dolly he could hold sweet converse as long as she would remain with him.  But he had been present at the bringing up of Dolly, and did think that gifts had been given to Dolly which had not fallen to the lot of the Carroll girls.  “They all want to be married,” he said to himself, “and that at any rate is a legitimate desire.”

With this he knocked at the door, and when it was opened by Sophia, he found an old gentleman with black cotton gloves and a doubtful white cravat just preparing for his departure.  There was Amelia, then giving him his hat, and looking as pure and proper as though she had never been winked at by Prince Chitakov.  Then the mother came through from the parlor into the passage.  “Oh, John! how very kind of you to come.  Mr. Matterson, pray let me introduce you to my brother, Mr. Grey.  John, this is the Rev. Mr. Matterson, a clergyman who is a very intimate friend of Amelia.”

“Me, ma!  Why me in particular?”

“Well, my dear, because it is so.  I suppose it is so because Mr. Patterson likes you the best.”

“Laws, ma; what nonsense!” Mr. Matterson appeared to be a very shy gentleman, and only anxious to escape from the hall-door.  But Mr. Grey remembered that in former days, before the coming of Mr. Juniper upon the scene, he had heard of a clerical admirer.  He had been told that the gentleman’s name was Matterson, that he was not very young nor very rich, that he had five or six children, and that he could afford to marry if the wife could bring with her about one hundred pounds a year.  He had not then thought much of Mr. Matterson, and no direct appeal had been made to him.  After that Mr. Juniper had come forward, and then Mr. Juniper had been altogether abolished.  But it occurred to Mr. Grey that Mr. Matterson was at any rate better than Mr. Juniper; that he was by profession a gentleman, and that there might be a beginning of those good deeds by which he was anxious to make the evening of his days bearable to himself.

“I am delighted to make Mr. Matterson’s acquaintance,” he said, as that old gentleman scrambled out of the door.

Then his sister took him by the arm and led him at once into the parlor.  “You might as well come and hear what I have to say, Amelia.”  So the daughter followed them in.  “He is the most praiseworthy gentleman you ever knew, John,” began Mrs. Carroll.