They did not grate upon her sensibilities,
which were not delicate. She even tried to assist two or three of the
young women in their designs; she would often praise them and their
handiwork to her son--and in this she was aided by an old woman aunt
of hers who lived with the family. "Nancy Winslow is as handsome a
girl as ever I set eyes on, an' I never see any nicer sewin'," Mrs.
Merriam said, after the advent of the linen shirt, and she held it up
to the light admiringly. "Jest look at that hem-stitchin'!" she said.

"I guess whoever made that shirt calkilated 't would do for a weddin'
one," said old Aunt Betty Green, and Thomas made an exclamation and
went out of the room, tingling all over with shame and disgust.

"Thomas don't act nateral," said the old woman, glancing after him
through her iron-bound spectacles.

"I dun'no' what's got into him," returned his mother.

"Mebbe they foller him up a leetle too close," said Aunt Betty. "I
dun'no' as I should have ventured on a shirt when I was a gal. I made
a satin vest once for Joshua, but that don't seem quite as p'inted as
a shirt. It didn't scare Joshua, nohow. He asked me to have him the
next week."

"Well, I dun'no'," said Mrs. Merriam again. "I kind of wish Thomas
would settle on somebody, for I'm pestered most to death with 'em,
an' I feel as if 't was kind of mean takin' all these things into the
house."

"They've 'bout kept ye in sweet cake, 'ain't they, lately?"

"Yes; but I don't feel as if it was jest right for us to eat it up,
when 't was brought for Thomas. But he won't touch it. I can't see as
he has the least idee of any one of them. I don't believe Thomas has
ever seen anybody he wanted for a wife."

"Well, he's got the pick of 'em, a-settin' their caps right in his
face," said Aunt Betty.

Neither of them dreamed how the young man, sleeping and eating
and living under the same roof, beloved of them since he entered
the world, holding himself coldly aloof from this crowd of
half-innocently, half-boldly ardent young women, had set up for
himself his own divinity of love, before whom he consumed himself
in vain worship. His father suspected, and that was all, and he
never mentioned the matter again to his son.

After Thomas had spoken to Evelina the weeks went on, and they never
exchanged another word, and their eyes never met. But they dwelt
constantly within each other's thoughts, and were ever present to
each other's spiritual vision. Al