A Colonial Wooing
living. A dull, grasping animal himself, nothing akin to pleasure ever cast a ray upon his mind that was not physical rather than intellectual. His occasional remarks in meeting had no bearing on his own life; but his interests lay in his standing with the people with whom his life had been thrown, and his religion and his interests were so inseparable as to be practically one. Ruth had been a thorn at times in his flesh, and yet his smothered sense of justice had forced him often to admit to himself that her views of life were neither irrational nor irreligious; but they were not the views of Friends, and his own judgment must not weigh. He could scarcely be Friend Watson and a controlling spirit in meeting and yet have a worldling in his family. William Blake had a little property, and could he but bring about her marriage, then his responsibility would cease, and he could control William if he lived in the neighborhood; then, too, the cost of her maintenance would no longer fall upon her mother. What a piece of good fortune this opportune letter of Revell Stacy's, that
155
