"Yanko was in great trouble meantime. In his country you get an old man
for an ambassador in marriage affairs. He did not know how to proceed.
However, one day in the midst of sheep in a field (he was now Swaffer's
under-shepherd with Foster) he took off his hat to the father and
declared himself humbly. 'I daresay she's fool enough to marry you,' was
all Foster said. 'And then,' he used to relate, 'he puts his hat on his
head, looks black at me as if he wanted to cut my throat, whistles
the dog, and off he goes, leaving me to do the work.' The Fosters, of
course, didn't like to lose the wages the girl earned: Amy used to give
all her money to her mother. But there was in Foster a very genuine
aversion to that match. He contended that the fellow was very good with
sheep, but was not fit for any girl to marry. For one thing, he used
to go along the hedges muttering to himself like a dam' fool; and then,
these foreigners behave very queerly to women sometimes. And perhaps he
would want to carry her off somewhere--or run off himself. It was not
safe. He preached it to his daughter that the fellow might ill-use her
in some way. She made no answer. It was, they said in the village, as if
the man had done something to her. People discussed the matter. It was
quite an excitement, and the two went on 'walking out' together in the
face of opposition. Then something unexpected happened.

"I don't know whether old Swaffer ever understood how much he was
regarded in the light of a father by his foreign retainer. Anyway the
relation was curiously feudal. So when Yanko asked formally for an
interview--'and the Miss too' (he called the severe, deaf Miss Swaffer
simply _Miss_)--it was to obtain their permission to marry.
Swaffer heard him unmoved, dismissed him by a nod, and then shouted the
intelligence into Miss Swaffer's best ear. She showed no surprise, and
only remarked grimly, in a veiled blank voice, 'He certainly won't get