obable
to him that she would take him if he tried hard to get her. The brother
had treated him so amicably and shown him so much confidence that he
probably would really not greatly oppose it; if Elsie was to marry
somebody, Uli might suit better than many another. The parents, he
thought, wouldn't like it at first, and would make a fuss; but if Elsie
managed it and the thing was done, he wasn't afraid of not winning them
over. The thought of one day living on Slough Farm and being his own
master there, was infinitely pleasant to him. In twenty years, he
sometimes calculated, he would easily double his wealth; he would show
the whole district what farming could bring in. One plan after the other
rose before him--how to go about it, all the things he would do, what
the pastor would say when he published the banns, what the people in his
home district would say when some day he would come along with his own
horse and wagon and it would be noised around that he had six horses in
his stable and ten of the finest cows. To be sure, when he saw Elsie
lolling around lazily there were blots on his calculation. He realized
that she was no housekeeper, and was moreover queer and extravagant. The
last fault she might overcome, he thought, if she had a husband. He
could afford to have servants then; other folks got along without the
wife doing anything, and with such wealth it wouldn't matter much. There
was something the matter with every woman; he'd never heard of any that
was so perfect that one wouldn't wish for anything else. Rich, rich!
That was the thing. And still, when he saw Elsie, his calculations came
to a sudden stop. This fading, languishing, sleepy thing seemed too
unpalatable to him. When she touched him with her clammy hands he
shuddered; he felt as if he must wipe the spot she had touched. And then
when he heard her talk, so affected and stupid, it almost drove him out
of the room, and he had to reflect: No, you can't stand living with this
woman; every word she said would shame you. But when he was away from
Elsie again he saw the handsome farm, heard the money clink, imagined
himself looked up to, and he felt as if Elsie were not so bad after all;
so he would gradually persuade himself that perhaps she was cleverer
than she seemed, and, if she loved a man and he talked sensibly to her,
something might yet be done with her, and with a proper man she might
yet turn out a very sensible woman.

All this merely went o