Alice spoke at Bette’s back.  "I have found the perfect man for you."

Bette snorted. "I imagine I should admire that you never give up."

Alice replied happily, "Yes, you should."

Bette turned around and looked directly at Alice, "I should, but I don’t."

"This one is perfect."

"No one is perfect if I have no interest."

"But he is different from the others, Miss Porter."

"And how have you suddenly found someone different after so many years, Alice?  Have you become an alchemist and created a being from dross?"

"No.  He lives many towns away."

"How can you know of such a man?" Bette asked with genuine curiosity.

Alice, though, would not reveal one of her closest kept secrets, the peddler from whom she purchased, at a generous price,  information about the towns through which he travelled.  It had been with such information that she had made one of her most remarkable matches – an immensely ugly and an even more immensely fat widow with seven children with an even more immensely ugly and even more immensely fat childless widower who had a farm of six hectares. The perfect match had raised her reputation and increased her business twofold.

"The cards told me."

"Then you stopped too soon. The next card would have told you that I had no interest."

"Miss Porter, he is a learned man, who loves books.  You could spend every evening sharing lofty thoughts." Alice was pleased with herself.  She was certain that she had finally found a match that Bette would accept.

"Alice…."

"There’s more.  He is six and twenty and tall of slender build.  He has a pleasing voice, all of his teeth and he is tidy and does not mind bathing."

"Then you have described my perfect match." 

Alice jumped up from the chair, "Finally!"  She had missed the sarcasm in Bette’s words.

"Alice, I have no interest in any match, perfect or otherwise."

"But Miss Porter…"

"Enough Alice.  I have no need for a man.  I have my own property and have no need for support. If I married, my husband would then control that property and I would become dependent on him. Unmarried, I am free to do as I please and can spend my hours reading books without answering to anyone else or deal with someone envious because I am better educated.  And I won’t be worn out while still young, or even worse, die bearing child after child after child."