"What! _married_ him?" queried the lawyer, incredulously.

"Yes, why not? DIGBY was here, you see, and I could not find it in my
heart to cheat the poor man out of a job, with a large family on his
hands, too." And she laughed.

"Well, that _is_ a joke," was the lawyer's reply. And he rubbed his
hands appreciatively. "Who is the fellow? What's his name?"

"BLINKSOP," said ANN, "ARCHIBALD. Oh, won't there be a row," she
chuckled. "He's engaged to my cousin BELINDA, you see."

At this juncture TEDDY entered with the oysters and sherry.

"Come," said ANN to the lawyer, "sit up here and have something to eat,
and I'll tell you all about it. TEDDY," she continued facetiously, "will
you ask a blessing?"

TEDDY closed his eyes reverentially.

"For what I'm going to resayve out of this," said he, "may I be truly
thankful, and, oh Lord! I wish 'twas more." And he went out with a
solemn air.

"Did I understand you to say," inquired the lawyer, after he had
animated his diaphragm with two glasses of sherry, "that this BLINKSOP
is engaged to your cousin?"

"Yes," replied ANN, struggling with a very large oyster. "I call her