Seafaring
folk are generally loose sort of fish. He had probably been in the habit
of going about the house, using language and expressing views, the
hearing of which could not but have exercised an injurious effect upon
the formation of a growing girl's character. Juliana was his only child.
Only children generally make bad men and women. They are allowed to have
their own way too much. The pretty daughter of a retired sea-captain
would be certain to be spoilt.
"Josiah, I had also to remember, was a man evidently of weak character.
He would need management. Now, there was something about Hannah's eye
that eminently suggested management.
"At the end of two days my mind was made up. I wrote 'Hannah' on a slip
of paper, and posted it.
"A fortnight afterwards I received a letter from Josiah. He thanked me
for my advice, but added, incidentally, that he wished I could have made
it Julia. However, he said, he felt sure I knew best, and by the time I
received the letter he and Hannah would be one.
"That letter worried me. I began to wonder if, after all, I had chosen
the right girl. Suppose Hannah was not all I thought her! What a
terrible thing it would be for Josiah. What data, sufficient to reason
upon, had I possessed? How did I know that Hannah was not a lazy, ill-
tempered girl, a continual thorn in the side of her poor, overworked
mother, and a perpetual blister to her younger brothers and sisters? How
did I know she had been well brought up? Her father might be a precious
old fraud: most seemingly pious men are.
Pages:
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37