Matters were not going on pleasantly in the Matchin cottage.  Maud’s success in gaining an eligible position, as it was regarded among her friends, made her at once an object of greater interest than ever; but her temper had not improved with her circumstances, and she showed herself no more accessible than before.  Her father, who naturally felt a certain satisfaction at having, as he thought, established her so well, regarded himself as justified in talking to her firmly and seriously respecting her future.  He went about it in the only way he knew.  “Mattie,” he said one evening, when they happened to be alone together, “when are you and Sam going to make a match?”

She lifted her eyes to him, and shot out a look of anger and contempt from under her long lashes that made her father feel very small and old and shabby.

“Never!” she said, quietly.

“Come, come, now,” said the old man; “just listen to reason.  Sam is a good boy, and with what he makes and what you make——­”

“That has nothing to do with it.  I won’t discuss the matter any further.  We have had it all out before.  If it is ever mentioned again, Sam or I will leave this house.”

“Hoity-toity, Missy! is that the way you take good advice——­” but she was gone before he could say another word.  Saul walked up and down the room a few moments, taking very short steps, and solacing his mind by muttering to himself:  “Well, that’s what I get by having a scholar in the family.  Learning goes to the head and the heels—­makes ’em proud and skittish.”

He punctually communicated his failure to Sam, who received the news with a sullen quietness that perplexed still more the puzzled carpenter.

On a Sunday afternoon, a few days later, he received a visit from Mr. Bott, whom he welcomed, with great deference and some awe, as an ambassador from a ghostly world of unknown dignity.  They talked in a stiff and embarrassed way for some time about the weather, the prospect of a rise in wages, and other such matters, neither obviously taking any interest in what was being said.  Suddenly Bott drew nearer and lowered his voice, though the two were alone in the shop.

“Mr. Matchin,” he said, with an uneasy grin, “I have come to see you about your daughter.”

Matchin looked at him with a quick suspicion.

“Well, who’s got anything to say against my daughter?”

“Oh, nobody that I know of,” said Bott, growing suspicious in his turn.  “Has anything ever been said against her?”

“Not as I know,” said Saul.  “Well, what have you got to say?”

“I wanted to ask how you would like me as a son-in-law?” said Bott, wishing to bring matters to a decision.