"I am no lady's man,"--these were the next words I heard,--"but then I
judge you're not anxious for flattery, but prefer the square thing
uttered by a square man without delay or circumlocution. Madam, I am
fifty-three, and I have been a widower two years. I am not fitted for a
solitary life, and I am fitted for the companionship of an affectionate
wife who will keep my hearth clean and my affections in good working
order. Will you be that wife? You see my home,"--here his eye stole
behind him with that uneasy look towards the barn which William's
presence in it certainly warranted,--"a home which I can offer you
unencumbered, if you----"

"Desire to live in Lost Man's Lane," I put in, subduing both my surprise
and my disgust at this preposterous proposal, in order to throw all the
sarcasm of which I was capable into this single sentence.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, "you don't like the neighborhood. Well, we could go
elsewhere. I am not set against the city myself----"

Astounded at his presumption, regarding him as a possible criminal, who
was endeavoring to beguile me for purposes of his own, I could no longer
repress either my indignation or the wrath with which such impromptu
addresses naturally inspired me. Cutting him short with a gesture which
made him open his small eyes, I exclaimed in continuation of his remark:

"Nor, as I take it, are you set against the comfortable little income
somebody has told you I possessed. I see your disinterestedness, Deacon,
but I should be sorry to profit by it. Why, man, I never spoke to you
before in my life, and do you think----"

"Oh!" he suavely insinuated, with a suppressed chuckle which even his
increasing uneasiness as to William could not altogether repress, "I see
you are _not_ above the flattery that pleases other women. Well, madam,
I know a tremendous fine woman when I see her, and from the moment I saw
you riding by the other day, I made up my mind I would have you for the
second Mrs. Spear, if persistence and a proper advocacy of my cause
could accomplish it. Madam, I was going to visit you with this proposal
to-night, but seeing you here, the temptation was too great for my
discretion, and so I have addressed you on the spot. But you need not
answer me at once. I don't need to know any more about _you_ than what I
can take in with my two eyes, but if you would like a little more
acquaintance with _me_, why I can wait a couple of weeks till we've
rubbed the edges of