"Will you never grow up?" he exclaimed as he applied a handkerchief to
his ruddy face.

"I'd like you so much better if you were younger--will you never be
young?" she asked.

"It makes a man old before his time to have to meet you day by day and
live near you."

"Why don't you try living with me?" she retorted. "Ah, then, you meant
me when you said to Mrs. Crozier that you were going to be married?
Wasn't that a bit 'momentary'? as my mother's cook used to remark. I
think we haven't 'kept company'--you and I"

"It's true you haven't been a beau of mine, but I'd rather marry you than
be obliged to live with you," was the paradoxical retort.

"You have me this time," he said, trying in vain to solve her reply.

Kitty tossed her head. "No, I haven't got you this time, thank Heaven,
and I don't want you; but I'd rather marry you than live with you, as I
said. Isn't it the custom for really nice-minded people to marry to get
rid of each other--for five years, or for ever and ever and ever?"

"What a girl you are, Kitty Tynan!" he said reprovingly. He saw that
she meant Crozier and his wife.

Kitty ceased her work for an instant and, looking away from him into the
distance, said: "Three people said those same words to me all in one day
a thousand years ago. It was Mr. Crozier, Jesse Bulrush, and my mother;