The scene was prolonged.

Bob had no recourse to tenderness to dismiss the girl's jealousy.

His self-conceit was supreme, and had always stood him in such stead with the young ladies who, to use his own expression, were 'dead nuts on him,' that his love-making, under whatever circumstances, always took the form of genial banter _de haut en bas_.

'Don't be a bloomin' fool!' was the phrase he deemed of most efficacy in softening the female heart; and the result seemed to justify him, for after some half-hour's wrangling, Clem abandoned her hostile attitude, and eyed him with a savage kind of admiration.
'When are you goin' to buy me that locket, Bob, to put a bit of your 'air in ?' she inquired pertinently.
'You just wait, can't you?
There's a event coming off next week.

I won't say nothing, but you just wait.' 'I'm tired o' waitin'.