"Well, I'm not," Jenny retorted. "I don't see what religion's got to do with marrying." "You come to think of it, Miss Raeburn, it's not such a bad offer. I don't believe you could meet with a safer man than Zack. I suppose if he's worth a dollar, he's worth three hundred pounds a year, and that's comfortable living in Cornwall." "But he's old enough to be my father," Jenny contended. "He looks older than what he is," continued Mr. Corin plausibly. "Actually he isn't much more than thirty-five." "Yes, then he woke up," scoffed Jenny. "No, really he isn't," Corin persisted. "But he's been a big worker all his life. Thunder and sleet never troubled him. And, looking at it this way, you know the saying, ''Tis better to be an old man's darling than a young man's slave.'" "But I don't like him--not in the way that I could marry him." Jenny had a terrible feeling of battered down defenses, of some inexorable force advancing against her. "Yes; but you might grow to like him. It's happened before now with maids. And look, he's willing for 'ee to have your sister to live with you, and that means providing for her. What 'ud become of her if anything happened to you or your father?" "She could go and live with my sister Edie or my brother." "Yes; but we all know what that may mean, whereas if she comes to live with you, Zack will be so proud of her as if she were his very own sister." Jenny was staggered by the pertinacity of this wooing and made a slip. "Yes; but when does he want to marry me?" The pleader was not slow to take hold of this. "Then you'll consider it, eh?" "I never said so," Jenny replied in a quick attempt to retrieve her blunder. "Well, he wants to marry you now at once." "But I couldn't. For one thing I couldn't leave the theater all in a hurry. It would look so funny. Besides----" "Well," Zack said, "Don't worry the maid, William John, but leave her to find out her own mind and I'll bide here along till she do know it."