Amberley people shrugged their shoulders when gossip noised the matter abroad . But , being good-humoured in the main , they forebore to do more than say that Mattie Adams was free to make a goose of herself if it pleased her , and that Jed Crane was n't such a fool as he looked . The Adams farm was one of the best in Amberley , and it had not grown any poorer under Mattie 's management . `` If Jed walks in there and hangs up his hat he 'll have done well for himself after all . '' This was Selena 's view of it also , barring the good nature . She was furious at the whole affair , and she did her best to make Mattie 's life a burden to her with slurs and thrusts . But they all misjudged Jed . He had no intention of `` walking in and hanging up his hat '' -- or trying to . Romantic as he was , it never occurred to him that Mattie might be as romantic as himself . She did not care for him , and anyhow he , Jed , had a little too much pride to ask her , a rich woman , to marry him , a poor man who had lost all caste he ever possessed by taking up tin-peddling . Jed was determined not to `` persoom . '' And , oh , how deliciously romantic it all was ! He hugged himself with sorrowful delight over it . As the summer waned and the long yellow leaves began to fall thickly from the willows in the Adams lane Jed began to talk of going out west again . Tin-peddling was not possible in winter , and he did n't think he would try it another summer . Mattie listened with dismay in her heart . All summer she had made much of Jed , by way of tormenting Selena . But now she realized what he really meant to her . The old love had wakened to life in her heart ; she could not let Jed go out of her life again , leaving her to the old loneliness . If Jed went away everything would be flat , stale , and unprofitable .
She knew him to be XXXXX heart the kindest , most gentle of human beings , and the mere fact of his having been unsuccessful , even what some of his old neighbours might call stupid , did not change her feelings toward him in the least .
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