Better employed, you will say.
Ha, ha, _I_ know young men.

Marry in haste and repent at leisure.
But come over now and sit near me by this window.

I shouldn't object to a dish of gossip with you, not at all.

Do you remember that day when you had your first tooth out?
How you screamed?
I held your hands, and your mother your head.

You were an arrant coward, Gusty, and I'm frank enough to remind you of the fact." Just then, to Augustus Jenkins' infinite relief, Mrs.Bell entered the room; he was spared any further reminiscences of his youth, and he and Matty were thankful to escape into the garden.
After the necessary congratulations had been gone through, and Mrs.Bell had bridled, and looked important, and Mrs.Butler had slapped her friend on the shoulder, and given her elbow a sly poke, and in short gone through the pleasantries which she thought becoming to the occasion, the ladies turned to the more serious business in hand.
Mrs.Butler, who prided herself on being candid, who was the terror of her friends on account of this said candor, asked a plain question in her usual style.
"Maria, go to the window and look out.