Sue said a few words of explanation.  Her mother laughed, but urged, “Do go and change your dress.”

“I protest!” cried Mr. Minturn.  “The walking-suit and overalls go together.”

“Walking-suit, indeed!” repeated Sue, disdainfully.  “But I shall not change it.  I will not soften one feature of the scrape you have persisted in getting yourself into.”

“Please don’t.”

“Mr. Minturn,” said the matron, with smiling positiveness, “Susie is boss only out of doors; I am, in the house.  There is a fresh-made cup of coffee and some eggs on toast in the dining-room.  Having taken such an early start, you ought to have a lunch before being put to work.”

“Yes,” added Sue, “and the out-door boss says you can’t go to work until at least the coffee is sipped.”

“She’s shrewd, isn’t she, Mrs. Banning?  She knows she will get twice as much work out of me on the strength of that coffee.  Please get the overalls.  I will not sip, but swallow the coffee, unless it’s scalding, so that no time may be lost.  Miss Banning must see all she had set her heart upon accomplished to-day, and a great deal more.”

The matron departed on her quest, and as she pulled out the overalls, nodded her head significantly.  “Things will be serious sure enough if he accomplishes all he has set his heart on,” she muttered.  “Well, he doesn’t seem afraid to give us a chance to see him.  He certainly will look ridiculous in these overalls, but not much more so than Sue in that old dress.  I do wish she would change it.”

The girl had considered this point, but with characteristic decision had thought:  “No; he shall see us all on the plainest side of our life.  He always seemed a good deal of an exquisite in town, and he lives in a handsome house.  If to-day’s experience at the old farm disgusts him, so be it.  My dress is clean and tidy, if it is outgrown and darned; and mother is always neat, no matter what she wears.  I’m going through the day just as I planned; and if he’s too fine for us, now is the time to find it out.  He may have come just for a lark, and will laugh with his folks to-night over the guy of a girl I appear; but I won’t yield even to the putting of a ribbon in my hair.”

Mrs. Banning never permitted the serving of cold slops for coffee, and Mr. Minturn had to sip the generous and fragrant beverage slowly.  Meanwhile, his thoughts were busy.  “Bah! for the old saying, ‘Take the goods the gods send,’” he mused.  “Go after your goods and take your pick.  I knew my head was level in coming out.  All is just as genuine as I supposed it would be—­simple, honest, homely.  The girl isn’t homely, though, but she’s just as genuine as all the rest, in that old dress which fits her like a glove.  No shams and disguises on this field-day of my life.  And her mother!  A glance at her comfortable amplitude banished my one fear.  There’s not a sharp angle about her.  I was satisfied about Miss Sue, but the term ‘mother-in-law’ suggests vague terrors to any man until reassured.—­Ah, Miss Banning,” he said, “this coffee would warm the heart of an anchorite.  No wonder you are inspired to fine things after drinking such nectar.”