"And how do they strike you?" Uncle Paul inquired. "Because you know, I
suppose----" He stopped for a while. "Well, I wonder what you think of
them," he said.
"I am sorry to say," I replied, "that I don't see anything very wrong
with either."
He looked at me through his highly magnifying gold-rimmed glasses. Then
he laughed.
"I felt a little like that myself," he said. "But we mustn't be dogs in
the manger: old men like us."
(Not so old as that, all the same! He must speak for himself.)
"I could wish that the quiet one had more legs," said Uncle Paul. "But
I suppose that his disability is all in his favour with such a born
manager as Ben. Would he be your choice?"
"I don't know," I said. "I sometimes think I should prefer her to take
the jolly one. And I like a man to be complete."
"The jolly one might get on her nerves after a while," said Uncle Paul.
"High spirits and facetiousness can ruin a marriage almost as easily as
egotism and irony."
"I don't think Harford's humour is as virulent as that," I said. "I
saw a lot of him at Bibury. I thought his gaiety rather attractive. He
has some brains, too. His principal fault--and I wish I could share
it--is that he finds life an adventure and a joke. But he will be cured
of such heresies as those all too soon. Nothing so enrages the Powers
above as to see anyone down here daring to be like that. And they have
all the weapons of chastisement and correction so handy!"
"Well, I shall put my money on the lame one," said Uncle Paul.
"But why should she marry either?" I asked. "She does not strike me as
so inevitably a marrying girl."
"Geographical conditions largely," said Uncle Paul. "There they all
are, so absolutely on the spot."
"I should have thought they would be jealous," I said.
"I've no doubt they are," said Uncle Paul, who seemed to me to know far
too much for a stammering recluse given to Round Pond navigation. "And
if one of them is not accepted, or both aren't refused, pretty soon,
'The Booklovers' Rest' will dissolve partnership."
"As bad as that?" I remarked.
"I think so," he said. "It's astonishing what a disturbing element in
the lives of two young men one young woman can be."
"Yes," I said, "and it's more astonishing when it's such a sensible
girl as Ben, who would not be bothered to make mischief with anyone,
but merely wants to go her own way and be busy. But what does Nature
care about 'The Becks and Calls'? Nature has only two ideas in her
obstinate old head. One is that people should fall in love and become
parents, and the other that they should grow old."