An only child was Richard, and the apple of his father's eye, and spoilt
from his cradlehood by both parents; and so, when he wanted Milly Boon,
they didn't see why not, though she was a pauper, because his father felt
that it might be a good thing for Dick to wed a wife and settle down.
But it takes two to a job of that sort, and Milly hung fire, much to the
misery of young Bewes. He spared no pains in his courting, and told her
how she was making an old man of him before his time and robbing him of
his sleep, and his appetite, and his wish to live and so on; but she knew
very well indeed he'd said all that and a lot more to other maidens, and
she felt, deep down in her nature, he wasn't the right one for her,
despite his fine appearance and education. For he was a clever man and had
been taught knowledge at a Secondary School.
So things stood when Mary Cobley broke her sad tale to her son, while he
sat and sucked his pipe and listened on a winter evening, with the wind
puffing the peat smoke from the fire into the room off and again.
"'Tis like this," she said. "Farmer's hard up, or so he says, and wants to
sell Mrs. Pedlar's cottage over her head. But there's one way out and only
one. Of course, Bewes be a lot too crafty to put it in words; but he's let
it soak into Jane's mind very clever that if Milly Boon was to see her way
to take Richard Bewes, then all would be well; but if she cannot rise to
it, he's cruel afraid he must sell.
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