ivial side of the affair.

FALK.
A firm?

MISS JAY [continuing].
Of vast resources, I'm informed.
You can imagine how the suitors swarm'd;
Gentlemen of the highest reputation.--

MRS. HALM.
Even a baronet made application.

MISS JAY.
But Molly was not to be made their catch.
She had met Strawman upon private stages;
To see him was to love him--

FALK.
And despatch
The wooing gentry home without their wages?

MRS. HALM.
Was it not just a too romantic match?

MISS JAY.
And then there was a terrible old father,
Whose sport was thrusting happy souls apart;
She had a guardian also, as I gather,
To add fresh torment to her tortured heart.
But each of them was loyal to his vow;
A straw-hatched cottage and a snow-white ewe
They dream'd of, just enough to nourish two--

MRS. HALM.
Or at the very uttermost a cow,--

MISS JAY.
In short, I've heard it from the lips of both,--
A beck, a byre, two bosoms, and one troth.

FALK.
Ah yes! And then--?

MISS JAY.
She broke with kin and class.

FALK.
She broke--?

MRS. HALM.
Broke with them.

FALK.
There's a plucky lass!

MISS JAY.
And fled to Strawman's garret--

FALK.
How? Without--
Ahem, the priestly consecration?

MISS JAY.
Shame!

MRS. HALM.
Fy, fy! my late beloved husband's name
Was on the list of sponsors--!

STIVER [to MISS JAY].
The one room
Not housing sheep and cattle, I presume.

MISS JAY [to STIVER].
O, but you must consider this, my friend;
There is no _Want_ where Love's the guiding star;
All's right without if tender Troth's within.
[To Falk.
He loved her to the notes of the guitar,
And she gave lessons on the violin--

MRS. HALM.
Then all, of course, on credit they bespoke--

GULDSTAD.
Till, in a year, the timber merchant broke.

MRS. HALM.
Then Strawman had a call to north.

MISS JAY.
And there
Vowed, in a letter that I saw (as few did),
He lived but for his duty, and for her.

FALK [as if completing her statement].
And with those words his Life's Romance concluded.

MRS. HALM [rising].
How if we should go out upon the lawn,
And see if there's no prospect of them yet?

MISS JAY [drawing on her mantle].
It's cool already.

MRS. HALM.