It was characteristic of Mattie to laugh first at the question , and then blush over the memory it revived . `` Most of the time , I guess , '' she said shortly . `` But come -- come in . I never could talk under Selena 's eyes , even if they were four hundred yards away . '' Jed went in and stayed to tea . The old Adams pantry had not failed , nor apparently the Adams skill in cooking . After tea Jed hung around till sunset and drove away with a warm invitation from Mattie to call every time his rounds took him through Amberley . As he went , Selena 's face appeared at the window of the house over the valley . When he had gone Mattie went around to the classical porch and sat herself down under the honeysuckle festoons that dangled above her smooth braids of fawn-coloured hair . She knew Selena would be down posthaste presently , agog with curiosity to find out who the pedlar was whom Mattie had delighted to honour with an invitation to tea . Mattie preferred to meet Selena out of doors . It was easier to thrust and parry there . Meanwhile , she wanted to think over things . Fifteen years before Jedediah Crane had been Mattie Adams 's beau . Jedediah was romantic even then , but , as he was a slim young fellow at the time , with an abundance of fair , curly hair and innocent blue eyes , his romance was rather an attraction than not . At least the then young and pretty Mattie had found it so . The Adamses looked with no favour on the match . They were a thrifty , well-to-do folk . As for the Cranes -- well , they were lazy and shiftless , for the most part . It would be a mésalliance for an Adams to marry a Crane .
Still , it would doubtless have happened -- XXXXX Mattie , though a meek-looking damsel , had a mind of her own -- had it not been for Selena Ford , Mattie 's older sister .
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