This proposal, then, he set before the muscular man on his presenting himself this afternoon.

Allchin's astonishment at the story he had heard from Mrs.Hopper was not less than that of the woman herself.

With difficulty persuaded to sit down, he showed a countenance in which the gloom he thought decorous struggled against jubilation on his own account: and Warburton had not talked long before his listener's features irresistibly expanded in a happy grin.
"How would something of this kind suit you ?" asked Will.
"Me, sir ?" Allchin slapped his leg.

"You ask how it suits _me_ ?" His feelings were too much for him.

He grew very red, and could say no more.
"Then suppose we settle it so.