On a Sunday afternoon, a few days later, he received a visit from Mr. Bott, whom he welcomed, with great deference and some awe, as an ambassador from a ghostly world of unknown dignity. They talked in a stiff and embarrassed way for some time about the weather, the prospect of a rise in wages, and other such matters, neither obviously taking any interest in what was being said. Suddenly Bott drew nearer and lowered his voice, though the two were alone in the shop. "Mr. Matchin," he said, with an uneasy grin, "I have come to see you about your daughter." Matchin looked at him with a quick suspicion. "Well, who's got anything to say against my daughter?" "Oh, nobody that I know of," said Bott, growing suspicious in his turn. "Has anything ever been said against her?" "Not as I know," said Saul. "Well, what _have_ you got to say?" "I wanted to ask how you would like me as a son-in-law?" said Bott, wishing to bring matters to a decision. Saul stood for a moment without words in his astonishment. He had always regarded Bott as "a professional character," even as a "litrary man"; he had never hoped for so lofty an alliance. And yet he could not say that he wholly liked it. This was a strange creature--highly gifted, doubtless, but hardly comfortable. He was too "thick" with ghosts. One scarcely knew whether he spent most of his time "on earth or in hell," as Saul crudely phrased it. The faint smell of phosphorus that he carried about with him, which was only due to his imperfect ablutions after his seances, impressed Saul's imagination as going to show that Bott was a little too intimate with the under-ground powers. He stood chewing a shaving and weighing the matter in his mind a moment before he answered. He thought to himself, "After all, he is making a living. I have seen as much as five dollars at one of his seeunses." But the only reply he was able to make to Bott's point-blank question was: "Well, I dunno." The words were hardly encouraging, but the tone was weakly compliant. Bott felt that his cause was gained, and thought he might chaffer a little. "Of course," he said, "I would like to have a few things understood, to start with. I am very particular in business matters." "That's right," said Saul, who began to think that this was a very systematic and methodical man. "I am able to support a wife, or I would not ask for one," said Bott. "Exactly," said Saul, with effusion; "that's just what I was saying to myself." "Oh, you was!" said Bott, scowling and hesitating. "You was, was you?" Then, after a moment's pause, in which he eyed Saul attentively, he continued, "Well--that's so. At the same time, I am a business man, and I want to know what you can do for your girl." "Not much of anything, Mr. Bott, if you must know. Mattie is makin' her own living." "Yes. That's all right. Does she pay you for her board?"