Lugging the tomatoes, she went back to the house. “There is quite a lot,” she said, setting the basket down. “What do you think, Cousin Rindy, I have been talking to Mr. Todd. Isn’t he a dear?” “Humph! Yes, there are more than I thought. I can fry some of the ripest ones for supper, and the rest will ripen along and last quite a while. So you have been talking to Jeremy, poor old Jeremy.” “Is he so poor?” “He’s not what you would call rich except in a beautiful optimism and a rare philosophy. Most persons would call him a disappointed man.” “What disappointed him?” “Well, he hadn’t much but talent to start with, talent for music. He was always an up-in-the-clouds sort of somebody, and when his father died he took the small amount that was left him and went abroad. He was getting along first rate, they said, when he met with an accident, had a terrible fall while he and a friend were taking a walking tour through Switzerland. It was a long time before he was able to be moved. His brother went over for him and brought him back, and he was in a hospital for a long time. It was there he met Bessie Stayman, who was one of the nurses. She owned the house next door, and finally brought him there; her mother was living then and needed her care. Well, the upshot of it was that she married Jeremy. Mind you _she_ married _him_, made a dead set at him. She was getting on, and it was him or nobody. She made him believe—— Oh, well, we won’t go into that. At all events it gave him a home when he most needed it, and he didn’t find out right away what a spitfire she is. If she only sputtered it wouldn’t matter so much; I can stand sputtering better than whining. But he hasn’t an easy time of it, I’ll warrant. She orders him around like a slave driver, wants things done on the minute, no matter what. It doesn’t make any difference how he may be occupied, if she wants a thing done, drop his affairs he must to do her bidding, although it may be by no means important that he should. He must tend to fires, wash dishes, do any old thing. She won’t let him practice on his ’cello because she doesn’t like to hear it. So his only refuge is the church; he can always make the excuse that his duty is there, and can slip off when he can’t stand it any longer. But—well, I call him a disappointed man.” “But he seemed so dear and cheerful.” “He’s always that. He rises above conditions better than most.” “He said we were sure to be friends.” “You could have a worse one, but don’t let him lead you off into dreaming dreams that can’t come true. It is fortunate that I’ll be on hand to keep you down to solid earth if he happens to carry you too far up into the clouds.” Then, as if to punctuate her remarks, Miss Rindy bade her young cousin sit down to the task of darning stockings.