but the
match is well liked by judicious persons, and such as are your
Cordial friends, and mine also.

"Yet notwithstanding, if you find in yourself an unmovable,
incurable Aversion from him and cannot love and honor and obey him,
I shall say no more, nor give you any further trouble in this
matter. It had better off than on. So praying God to pardon us and
pitty our Undeserving, and to direct and strengthen and settle you
in making a right judgment, and giving a right Answer, I take
leave, who am, Dear Child, Your loving father.

"Your mother remembers to you."

Even this very proper and fatherly advice did not have an immediate
effect upon the shy and vacillating young girl, for not until a year
later did she become the wife of persistent Grove Hirst.

One of the most typical stories of colonial methods of "matching" among
fine gentlefolk is found in the worry of Emanuel Downing, a man of
dignity in the commonwealth, and of his wife, Lucy (who was Gov.
Winthrop's sister), in regard to the settlement of their children.
Downing begins with anxious overtures to Endicott in regard to "matching
his sonne" to an orphan maid living in Endicott's family, a maid who it
is needless to state had a very pretty fortune. Downing states that he
has been blamed for not marrying off his children earlier, "that none
are disposed of," and deplores his ill-luck in having them so long on
his hands, and he recounts pathetically his own and his son's good
points. He also got Governor Winthrop to write to Endicott pleading the
match. Endicott answered both letters in a most dignified manner,
stating his objections to furthering Downing's wishes, giving a
succession of reasons, such as the maid's unwillingness to marry, being
but fifteen years of age, his own awkward position in seeming to crowd
marriage upon her when she was so rich, etc., etc. The Downings had
hoped to have thriftily two marriages in the family in one day, but the
daughter Luce's affairs also halted. She had been enamoured of a Mr.
Eyer, an unsuitable match. He had put out to sea, to the Downings'
delight, but had returned at an unlucky time when she was on with a
fresh suitor. Her mother was much distressed because, though Luce
declared she much liked Mr. Norton, she still showed to all around her
that "she hath not yet forgotten Mr. Eyer his fresh Red."

But Mistress Luce, by a telling statement of pecuniary benefit