s maid to such scant living as I could offer, nor would he let us even
call ourselves troth-plight; and Alice, the gentle, timid maid that she
was, yielded all to her father's will, and I, in the naughty pride of a
young man's heart, was angered that she would not promise to hold
herself against all importunities, and we quarreled, or forsooth I
should say I quarreled, and flung away, and I knew Dorothy May and her
kin, and she, poor soul, was ready to wed as her father willed"--

"Enough Will, enough; it is not good to put all that is in one's heart
into words. I see the whole story. And now thou 'lt write to Mistress
Southworth and ask her to come out with the residue of our company, and
become thy wife?"

"Ay, dear friend, that is my plan," said Bradford, wringing the hand
Standish extended, and turning his flushed face aside.

"And why not?" asked Myles heartily. "'T is no new affair, no hasty
furnishing forth of a marriage feast with the cold vivers of the funeral
tables, as yon fellow said in the play. 'T is marvelous like one of
those old romaunts my kinswoman Barbara used to tell over to me and the
dear lass that's gone. There now--and thou hadst not this matter in
hand, I'd wive thee to Barbara Standish--'t is the best wench alive, I
do believe, and full of quip, and crank as a jest book."

"Thy cousin?" asked Bradford rather absently.

"Ay, but I know not just how nigh. Her father held for his lifetime a
little place of ours on the Isle of Man, and I, trying to find an old
record that should give me a fair estate feloniously held from me now,
went over there once and again, and so met Rose, and went yet again and
again, until we two wed, and I carried her away to my friends in the
Netherlands."

"And is thy cousin wed?"

"Nay, did not I say I'd like to give her to thee to wife? But barring
that, I'll send for her to come with the next company, perchance under
charge of thy sober widow, Will, and I'll marry her to one of these our
good friends here. So if I do not marry myself, for the weal of the
community as Winslow says, I shall purvey for some one of them a wife
and mother of children in my stead."

"'T is well thought on, Captain," replied Bradford laughing, "and I can
promise that if Mistress Southworth makes the voyage she will gladly
take charge of thy cousin, for whom we will choose a husband of our
best. But why wilt not thou marry again, thyself? Was not that in thy
mind in speaking of couns