I didn't expect to find you just as ready to laugh at poor Miss Mellicent as I was." Mr.Hethcote declined to be reminded of his duties as a middle-aged gentleman in this backhanded manner.

"Gently, Amelius! You can't expect to persuade us that a laughable thing is not a thing to be laughed at.
A woman close on forty who falls in love with a young fellow of twenty-one--" "Is a laughable circumstance," Rufus interposed.

"Whereas a man of forty who fancies a young woman of twenty-one is all in the order of Nature.
The men have settled it so.

But why the women are to give up so much sooner than the men is a question, sir, on which I have long wished to hear the sentiments of the women themselves." Mr.Hethcote dismissed the sentiments of the women with a wave of his hand.

"Let us hear the rest of it, Amelius.