There had been a moment that afternoon when she, who was ordinarily so self-centered, could not help noticing how the dog nestled his nose softly into Matt's hand; how the cat kept creeping round his legs, hunching its back and rubbing its ears till it got the stroke under the chin that it was wishing for; how the Jerseys came up to the bars to greet him. She had once seen him at milking time and noted how still the cows stood in the stalls, giving their milk tranquilly at the touch of his steady, kind hands. Yes, he would be good to live with, but he didn't dress well and looked worse on Sundays than he did in his working clothes. She liked the things he said, and the way he looked at her and complimented her, but there were sad lapses in his grammar. And how would he appear in company, if she succeeded in dragging him away from this one-horse village and establishing him where her beauty would have a larger audience? She didn't know; she could not be sure. Why was it that a really "stylish" man from a large city never came across her path? If one ever did arrive, she felt sure that her heart, which had never in its life beat faster than normal, might carry her to a swift, sure decision. Meantime she was twenty and would soon be "walking down the western slopes of life," Mrs. Wilkins's metaphor for unmarried ladies over five and twenty. "Sometimes I fear I shan't be able to stave Matt off till the end of the term," thought Undine. "That's what I'd rather do, for I'm certain to spend part of my vacation in Portland, where I always meet good society, and one can never tell what will happen. I don't want to see too much of him for fear I'll get to liking him and won't be able to settle matters for my best good. I wonder if his mother supposes I don't see through her and her 'try-cakes'? She hates me like poison, that woman does, because she knows I wouldn't fetch and carry for Matt the way she does!" These reflections concluded, Undine went to bed and slept peacefully. June was a trying month that year. The weather was unusually warm, and an outbreak of measles among the children interfered with Undine's preparations for the last day of school. She had several drives and moonlight walks with Matthew Milliken, and she had nearly succeeded in keeping him within bounds.