"I ain't 'ad a drink outside o' my own house for pretty near a fortnight.
I shall ask Selina to-morrow night, and settle it."

"Ask her?" said the amazed Mr. Vickers. "Ask 'er what?"

"Ask 'er to marry me," said the other, doggedly.

Mr. Vickers, thoroughly alarmed, argued with him in vain, the utmost
concession he could wring from the determined Mr. Russell being a promise
to give him a hint to get out of the way.

"I'll do that for my own sake," he said, frankly. "I can do it better
alone, and if your old woman is in you get her out too. Ask 'er to go
for a walk; that'll please Selina. I don't know what the gal does want.
I thought turning teetotaler and setting a good example to you would do
the trick, if anything would."

Mrs. Vickers's utter astonishment next evening, when her husband asked
her to go for a walk, irritated that gentleman almost beyond endurance.
Convinced at last that he was not joking, she went upstairs and put on
her bonnet, and then stood waiting for the reluctant Mr. Vickers with an
air of almost bashful diffidence.

"Joseph is coming in soon," said Selina, as her parents moved to the
door. "I'm expecting him every minute."

"I'll stop and see 'im," said Mr. Russell. "There's something I want to
speak to him about partikler."

Mr. Vickers gave a warning glance at him as he went out, and trembled as