You make my head ache. And round this hayrick stood a
crowd of men--a positive crowd!"
"Perhaps they also expected"--
"Polly, don't be Rabelaisian!"
Mrs. Mallowe curled herself up comfortably on the sofa, and turned her
attention to the sweets. She and Mrs. Hauksbee shared the same house at Simla;
and these things befell two seasons after the matter of Otis Yeere, which has
been already recorded.
Mrs. Hauksbee stepped into the veranda and looked down upon the Mall, her
forehead puckered with thought.
"Hah!" said Mrs. Hauksbee, shortly. "Indeed!"
"What is it?" said Mrs. Mallowe, sleepily.
"That dowd and The Dancing Master--to whom I object."
"Why to The Dancing Master? He is a middle-aged gentleman, of reprobate and
romantic tendencies, and tries to be a friend of mine."
"Then make up your mind to lose him. Dowds cling by nature, and I should
imagine that this animal--how terrible her bonnet looks from above!--is
specially clingsome."
"She is welcome to The Dancing Master so far as I am concerned. I never could
take an interest in a monotonous liar. The frustrated aim of his life is to
persuade people that he is a bachelor."
"0--oh! I think I've met that sort of man before. And isn't he?"
"No.
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