[She and I, Volume 2 by John Conroy Hutcheson]@TWC D-Link bookShe and I, Volume 2 CHAPTER TWO 5/10
I'm not a boy, Mrs Clyde; and I'm sure Min is old enough to know her own mind, too!" This was an impertinent addendum on my part; and, my opponent quickly retorted, with a thrust, which recalled my good manners. "You are very good to say so, Mr Lorton; but permit _me_ to judge best in that matter! Pray, how old are you, Mr Lorton, if I may be allowed to ask the question ?"--she said, looking at me with great "society" interest, as if she were examining a specimen of the extinct dodo. "Three-and-twenty," I said sententiously, like a catechumen responding to the questions supposed to be addressed to "N or M." "Dear me!" she ejaculated in seeming surprise.
"Three--and--twenty? I really would not have thought it! I wouldn't have taken you to be more than eighteen at the outside!" She hit me on my tenderest point.
I looked young for my age; and, like most young fellows, before time teaches them wisdom, making them strive to disguise the effect of each additional lustrum, I felt sore always when supposed to be more youthful than I actually was.
I was, consequently, nettled at her remarks.
She saw this, and smiled in amusement. "I _am_ twenty-three, however, Mrs Clyde, I assure you," I said warmly; "old enough to get married, I suppose!" "That entirely depends on circumstances," she said coldly, as if the matter was of no interest to her whatever; "years are no criterion for judgment"-- and she then stopped, throwing the burden of the next move on my shoulders. I did not hesitate any longer, however. "Will you allow Min to become engaged to me ?" I said, valiantly, plunging at once into the thick of the combat. "Pray, Mr Lorton," she replied, ignoring my query, "what means have you for supporting a wife? People cannot live upon nothing, you know; and `love in a cottage' is an exploded fallacy." She spoke as lightly and pleasantly as if she were conversing upon some ordinary society topic with another lady of the world like herself.
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