The Courtship of Susan Bell | Page 7

it. But the walkings had not been
achieved--nor even the talkings as yet. The truth was that Dunn was
bashful with young women, though he could be so stiff- necked with
the minister.
And then he felt angry with himself, inasmuch as he had advanced no
further; and as he lay in his bed--which perhaps those pretty hands had
helped to make--he resolved that he would be a thought bolder in his
bearing. He had no idea of making love to Susan Bell; of course not.
But why should he not amuse himself by talking to a pretty girl when
she sat so near him, evening after evening?
"What a very quiet young man he is," said Susan to her sister.
"He has his bread to earn, and sticks to his work," said Hetta. "No
doubt he has his amusement when he is in the city," added the elder
sister, not wishing to leave too strong an impression of the young man's
virtue.
They had all now their settled places in the parlour. Hetta sat on one
side of the fire, close to the table, having that side to herself. There she
sat always busy. She must have made every dress and bit of linen worn
in the house, and hemmed every sheet and towel, so busy was she
always. Sometimes, once in a week or so, Phineas Beckard would come
in, and then place was made for him between Hetta's usual seat and the
table. For when there he would read out loud. On the other side, close
also to the table, sat the widow, busy, but not savagely busy as her
elder daughter. Between Mrs. Bell and the wall, with her feet ever on
the fender, Susan used to sit; not absolutely idle, but doing work of

some slender pretty sort, and talking ever and anon to her mother.
Opposite to them all, at the other side of the table, far away from the
fire, would Aaron Dunn place himself with his plans and drawings
before him.
"Are you a judge of bridges, ma'am?" said Aaron, the evening after he
had made his resolution. 'Twas thus he began his courtship.
"Of bridges?" said Mrs. Bell--"oh dear no, sir." But she put out her
hand to take the little drawing which Aaron handed to her.
"Because that's one I've planned for our bit of a new branch from
Moreau up to Lake George. I guess Miss Susan knows something about
bridges."
"I guess I don't," said Susan--"only that they oughtn't to tumble down
when the frost comes."
"Ha, ha, ha; no more they ought. I'll tell McEvoy that." McEvoy had
been a former engineer on the line. "Well, that won't burst with any
frost, I guess."
"Oh my! how pretty!" said the widow, and then Susan of course
jumped up to look over her mother's shoulder.
The artful dodger! he had drawn and coloured a beautiful little sketch
of a bridge; not an engineer's plan with sections and measurements,
vexatious to a woman's eye, but a graceful little bridge with a string of
cars running under it. You could almost hear the bell going.
"Well; that is a pretty bridge," said Susan. "Isn't it, Hetta?"
"I don't know anything about bridges," said Hetta, to whose clever eyes
the dodge was quite apparent. But in spite of her cleverness Mrs. Bell
and Susan had soon moved their chairs round to the table, and were
looking through the contents of Aaron's portfolio. "But yet he may be a
wolf," thought the poor widow, just as she was kneeling down to say
her prayers.
That evening certainly made a commencement. Though Hetta went on
pertinaciously with the body of a new dress, the other two ladies did
not put in another stitch that night. From his drawings Aaron got to his
instruments, and before bedtime was teaching Susan how to draw
parallel lines. Susan found that she had quite an aptitude for parallel
lines, and altogether had a good time of it that evening. It is dull to go
on week after week, and month after month, talking only to one's
mother and sister. It is dull though one does not oneself recognise it to

be so. A little change in such matters is so very pleasant. Susan had not
the slightest idea of regarding Aaron as even a possible lover. But
young ladies do like the conversation of young gentlemen. Oh, my
exceedingly proper prim old lady, you who are so shocked at this as a
general doctrine, has it never occurred to you that the Creator has so
intended it?
Susan understanding little of the how and why, knew that she had had a
good time, and was rather in spirits as she went to bed. But Hetta had
been frightened by