l it was formally asked for.

Eccentric in everything else, Mat was consistently eccentric even in his
confusion. Some men who are bashful in a young lady's presence show it
by blushing--Mat's color sank instead of rising. Other men, similarly
affected, betray their burdensome modesty by fidgeting incessantly.--Mat
was as still as a statue. His eyes wandered heavily and vacantly over
the girl, beginning with her soft brown hair, then resting for a moment
on her face, then descending to the gay pink ribbon on her breast, and
to her crisp black silk apron with its smart lace pockets--then dropping
at last to her neat little shoes, and to the thin bright line of white
stocking that just separated them from the hem of her favorite grey
dress. He only looked up again, when she touched his hand and put her
slate pencil into it. At that signal he raised his eyes once more, read
the line she had written to thank him for the scarlet pouch, and tried
to write something in return. But his hand shook, and his thoughts
seemed to fail him, he gave her back the slate and pencil, looking her
full in the eyes as he did so. A curious change came over his face at
the same time--a change like that which had altered him so remarkably in
the hosier's shop at Dibbledean.

"Zack might, after all, have made many a worse friend than this man,"
thought Mr. Blyth, still attentively observing Mat. "Vagabonds don't
behave in the presence of young girls as he is behaving now."

With this idea in his mind, Valentine advanced to help his guest
by showing Mat how to communicate with Madonna. The painter was
interrupted, however, by young Thorpe, who, the moment he recovered from
his first sensations of surprise began to talk nonsense again, at the
top of his voice, with the mischievous intention of increasing Mat's
embarrassment.

While Mr. Blyth was attempting to silence Zack by leading him to the
supper table, Madonna was trying her best to reassure the great bulky,
sunburnt man who seemed to be absolutely afraid of her! She moved to a
stool, which stood near a second table in a corner by the fireplace; and
sitting down, produced the scarlet pouch, intimating by a gesture that
Mat was to look at what she was now doing. She then laid the pouch open
on her lap, and put into it several little work-box toys, a Tonbridge
silk-reel, an ivory needle case, a silver thimble with an enameled rim,
a tiny pair of scissors, and other things of the same kind--wh