A two-hundred-acre farm and a substantial bank account were worth going in for . Trust an Eastman for knowing upon which side his bread was buttered . Lawrence was only twenty , and looked even younger , owing to his smooth , boyish face , curly hair , and half-girlish bloom . Bessy Houghton was in reality no more than twenty-five , but Lynnfield people had the impression that she was past thirty . She had always been older than her years -- a quiet , reserved girl who dressed plainly and never went about with other young people . Her mother had died when Bessy was very young , and she had always kept house for her father . The responsibility made her grave and mature . When she was twenty her father died and Bessy was his sole heir . She kept the farm and took the reins of government in her own capable hands . She made a success of it too , which was more than many a man in Lynnfield had done . Bessy had never had a lover . She had never seemed like other girls , and passed for an old maid when her contemporaries were in the flush of social success and bloom . Mrs. Eastman , Lawrence 's mother , was a widow with two sons . George , the older , was the mother 's favourite , and the property had been willed to him by his father . To Lawrence had been left the few hundreds in the bank . He stayed at home and hired himself to George , thereby adding slowly to his small hoard . He had his eye on a farm in Lynnfield , but he was as yet a mere boy , and his plans for the future were very vague until he fell in love with Bessy Houghton . In reality nobody was more surprised over this than Lawrence himself . It had certainly been the last thing in his thoughts on the dark , damp night when he had overtaken Bessy walking home alone from prayer meeting and had offered to drive her the rest of the way . Bessy assented and got into his buggy .
At first she was very silent , and Lawrence , who was a bashful lad XXXXX the best of times , felt tongue-tied and uncomfortable .
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