“He is always dressed with the utmost nicety and in the tip-top of the fashion.”

“I’ll warrant him.  Jane told me he wore a lace cravat at the Priestly ball, and I have no doubt that his pocket handkerchief was edged with lace.  And yet she said, ‘No woman there laughed at him.’”

“At any rate he has fine eyes and hair and a pleasant face.”

“I wouldn’t bother myself to deny it.  If anyone fancies curly hair and big brown eyes and white cheeks and no chin to speak of and no feet fit to walk with and no hands to work with, it isn’t Martha Hatton and it isn’t Jane Harlow, I can take my affidavit on that,” and the confident smile which accompanied these words was better than any sworn oath to John Hatton.

“You see, John,” she continued, “I talked the man up and down with Jane, from his number four gloves to his number four shoes, and I know what she said—­what she said in her own way, mind you.  For Jane’s way is to pretend to like what she does not like, just to let people feel the road to her real opinions.”

“I do not quite understand you, mother.”

“I don’t know whether I quite understand myself, and it isn’t my way to explain my words—­people usually know what I mean—­but I will do it for once, as John Hatton is wanting it.  For instance, I was talking to Jane about her lovers—­I did not put you among them—­and she said, ’Mrs. Hatton, there are no lovers in these days.  The men that are men are no longer knights-errant.  They don’t fight in the tournament lists for their lady-love, nor even sing serenades under her window in the moonlight.  We must look for them,’ she said, ’in Manchester warehouses, or Yorkshire spinning-mills.  The knights-errant are all on the stock exchange, and the poets write for Punch.’  And I could not help laughing, and she laughed too, and her laugh was so infectious I could not get clear of it, and so poured my next cup of tea on the tea board.”

“I wish I had been present.”

“So do I, John.  Perhaps then you would have understood the contradictious girl, as well as I did.  You see, she wanted me to know that she preferred the Manchester warehouse men, and the Yorkshire spinners, and the share-tumblers of the stock exchange to knights and poets and that make of men.  Now, some women would have said the words straightforward, but not Jane.  She prefers to state her likings and dislikings in riddles and leave you to find out their meaning.”

“That is an uncomfortable, uncertain way.”

“To be sure it is, but if you want to marry Jane Harlow, you had better take it into account.  I never said she was perfect.”

“If ever she is my wife, I shall teach her very gently to speak straightforward words.”

“Then you have your work set, John.  Whether you can do it or not, is a different thing.  I don’t want you to marry Jane Harlow, but as you have set your heart on her, I have resolved to make the most of her strong points and the least of her weak ones.  You had better do the same.”