“I've a mind to have a talk with you,” said Ezra. “Is the door shut?”
Reuben rose to see, and murmuring that it was closed, resumed his seat. He waited a while in expectation that his uncle was about to confide in him.
“When beest going to make up your mind to pluck up a courage and speak to Ruth?” the old man asked.
“To Ruth, sir?” returned Reuben. The question staggered him a little.
“I have spoken,” answered Reuben. “We are going to be married.”
“That's well,” the old man said, mildly. “But I looked to be told of any such thing happening. Thee and me, lad, are all as is left o' th' old stock i' this part o' the world.”
“Don't think I should have kept you ignorant of it,” said Reuben. “I only knew this morning. I have not seen you since till now.”
“Well, lad, well,” said Ezra, “I wish thee happy. But I'm sure you know that without need of any word o' mine. I asked because I meant to give out a bit of a warning agen the danger of delay. Theer's not alone the danger of it, but sometimes the cruelty of it. It's hard for a young woman as has been encouraged to set her heart upon a man, to be kept waitin' on the young man's pleasure. You see, lad, they'm tongue-tied. Perhaps”--he offered this supposition with perfect gravity--“perhaps it's the having been tongue-tied afore marriage as makes some on 'em so lively and onruled in speech when marriage has set 'em free.”
There was a definite sense in Reuben's mind that the old man was not saying what he wished to say, and this sense was strengthened when Ezra, after moving once or twice in his seat, cleared his throat and began to walk up and down the room.
“Had you read that letter as you brought to me this morning, lad?” he asked, coughing behind his hand, and trying to speak as if the thing were a commonplace trifle.
“I read it because I thought that it must be addressed to me,” said Reuben. “I had written to Ruth, and she told me to look in Manzini for her answer. I found nothing but that letter in the book.”
“Why, how was that?” asked Ezra, without turning towards him.
“Her own note had been taken away before I got the book.” Reuben felt himself on dangerous ground. It was unpleasant to have to talk of these things, and it looked impossible to reveal Rachel's eccentricity to Ezra, knowing what he knew.