"Please, ma'am, he's only Jem Hearn," said Martha, by way of an introduction; and so out of breath was she that I imagine she had had some bodily struggle before she could overcome his reluctance to be presented on the courtly scene of Miss Matilda Jenkyns's drawing-room.
"And please, ma'am, he wants to marry me off-hand. And please, ma'am, we want to take a lodger--just one quiet lodger, to make our two ends meet; and we'd take any house conformable; and, oh dear Miss Matty, if I may be so bold, would you have any objections to lodging with us? Jem wants it as much as I do." [To Jem ]--"You great oaf! why can't you back me!--But he does want it all the same, very bad--don't you, Jem?--only, you see, he's dazed at being called on to speak before quality."
"It's not that," broke in Jem. "It's that you've taken me all on a sudden, and I didn't think for to get married so soon--and such quick words does flabbergast a man. It's not that I'm against it, ma'am" (addressing Miss Matty), "only Martha has such quick ways with her when once she takes a thing into her head; and marriage, ma'am--marriage nails a man, as one may say. I dare say I shan't mind it after it's once over."
"Please, ma'am," said Martha--who had plucked at his sleeve, and nudged him with her elbow, and otherwise tried to interrupt him all the time he had been speaking--"don't mind him, he'll come to; 'twas only last night he was an-axing me, and an-axing me, and all the more because I said I could not think of it for years to come, and now he's only taken aback with the suddenness of the joy; but you know, Jem, you are just as full as me about wanting a lodger." (Another great nudge.) "Ay! if Miss Matty would lodge with us--otherwise I've no mind to be cumbered with strange folk in the house," said Jem, with a want of tact which I could see enraged Martha, who was trying to represent a lodger as the great object they wished to obtain, and that, in fact, Miss Matty would be smoothing their path and conferring a favour, if she would only come and live with them.
Miss Matty herself was bewildered by the pair; their, or rather Martha's sudden resolution in favour of matrimony staggered her, and stood between her and the contemplation of the plan which Martha had at heart. Miss Matty began "Marriage is a very solemn thing, Martha."
"It is indeed, ma'am," quoth Jem. "Not that I've no objections to Martha."