Old Daniel Hurst
and William Dixon had talked over what they could respectively give
their children before this; and that was the parental way of
arranging such matters. When the probable amount of worldly gear
that he could give his child had been named by each father, the young
folk, as they said, might take their own time in coming to the point
which the old men, with the prescience of experience, saw they were
drifting to; no need to hurry them, for they were both young, and
Michael, though active enough, was too thoughtless, old Daniel said,
to be trusted with the entire management of a farm. Meanwhile, his
father would look about him, and see after all the farms that were to
be let.
Michael had a shrewd notion of this preliminary understanding between
the fathers, and so felt less daunted than he might otherwise have
done at making the application for Susan's hand. It was all right,
there was not an obstacle; only a deal of good advice, which the
lover thought might have as well been spared, and which it must be
confessed he did not much attend to, although he assented to every
part of it. Then Susan was called down stairs, and slowly came
dropping into view down the steps which led from the two family
apartments into the house-place.
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