"How supremely ridiculous you are! And I thought you such a sensible,
serious man."

"Mrs. Lambert put that in your head. We used to meet at the annual
dinners of the Bible Society."

"Why do you tell me such stuff?"

"It's a fact. Her father and my aunt were in that swim, and we were
sympathisers."

"Mercenary people!"

"It worked very well in her case; not so well in mine. But we conceived
a profound respect for each other then. But tell me, Marion, when is it
to be? Why put off the inevitable?"

"It isn't inevitable--and I'm only twenty-three."

"Only twenty-three,
And as good fish in the sea"

he responded, laughing. "Yes, but you've set the precedent for a
courtship of four years and a bit, and what man could face it?"

"You did."

"Yes, but I wasn't advertised of the fact beforehand. Suppose I had seen
the notice at the start: 'This mortgage cannot be raised inside of four