Speak out, can't you? There's any chap as has bin
a-lookin' arter her--is there?'
'Eh bien! I suppose some.'
'Well, you _suppose,_ and _I_ suppose--we may _all_ suppose, I guess; but
that does not make a thing be, as wasn't before; and you tell me as how
the lass is kep' private up there, and will be till you're done educating
her--a precious good 'un that is!' And he laughed a little lazily, with
the ivory handle of his cane on his lip, and eyeing Madame with indolent
derision.
Madame laughed, but looked rather dangerous.
'I'm only chaffin', you know, old girl. _You_'ve bin chaffin'--w'y
shouldn't _I_? But I don't see why she can't wait a bit; and what's all the
d----d hurry for? _I_'m in no hurry. I don't want a wife on my back for a
while. There's no fellow marries till he's took his bit o' fun, and seen
life--is there! And why should I be driving with her to fairs, or to
church, or to meeting, by jingo!--for they say she's a Quaker--with a babby
on each knee, only to please them as will be dead and rotten when _I_'m
only beginning?'
'Ah, you are such charming fellow; always the same--always sensible.
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