“Your health, sir,” said Samuel, drinking off the port and setting down the glass, which Mr. Levinger refilled. “I am not saying, sir,” he added, “that such a girl cannot be found,—I am not even saying that I have not found such a girl: that’s one thing, marrying is another.” “Ah! indeed,” said Mr. Levinger. Again Samuel lifted his glass and drank half its contents. The wine was of the nature that is known as “full-bodied,” and, not having eaten for some hours, it began to take effect on him. Samuel grew expansive. “I wonder, sir,” he said, “if I might take a liberty? I wonder if I might ask your advice? I should be grateful if you would give it to me, for I know that you have the cleverest head of any gentleman in these parts. Also, sir, you are no talker.” “I shall be delighted if I can be of any service to an old friend and tenant like yourself,” answered Mr. Levinger airily. “What is the difficulty?” Samuel finished the second glass of wine, and felt it go ever so little to his head; for which he was not sorry, as it made him eloquent. “The difficulty is this, sir. Thank you—just a taste more. I don’t drink wine myself, as a rule—it is too costly; but this is real good stuff, and maketh glad the heart of man, as in the Bible. Well, sir, here it is in a nutshell: I want to marry a girl; I am dead set on it; but she won’t have me, or at least she puts me off.” “Why not try another, then?” “Because I don’t want no other, Mr. Levinger, sir,” he answered, suddenly taking fire. The wine had done its work with him, and moreover this was the one subject that had the power to break through the cold cunning which was a characteristic of his nature. “I want this girl or none, and I mean to have her if I wait half a lifetime for her.” “You are in earnest, at any rate, which is a good augury for your success. And who may the lady be?” “Who may she be? Why, I thought you knew! There’s only one about here that she could be. Joan Haste, of course.” “Joan Haste! Ah! Yes, she is a handsome and attractive girl.” “Handsome and attractive? Eh! she is all that. To me she is what the sun is to the corn and the water to the fish. I can’t live without her. Look here: I have watched her for years, ever since she was a child. I have summered her and wintered her, as the saying is, thinking that I wouldn’t make no mistake about her, whatever I might feel, nor give myself away in a hurry, seeing that I wanted to keep what I earn for myself, and not to spend it on others just because a pretty face chanced to take my fancy.” “Perhaps you have been a little too careful under the circumstances, Mr. Rock.” “Maybe I have: anyway, it has come home to me now. A month or so back I spoke out, because I couldn’t keep myself in no longer.” “To Joan Haste?” “Yes, to Joan Haste. Her aunt knew about it before, but she didn’t seem able to help me much.” “And what did Joan say?”