"
"Then you'll get fat. dear. If you took more exercise and a more intelligent
interest in your neighbors you would--"
"Be as much loved as Mrs. Hauksbee. You're a darling in many ways and I like
you--you are not a woman's woman--but why do you trouble yourself about mere
human beings?"
"Because in the absence of angels, who I am sure would be horribly dull, men
and women are the most fascinating things in the whole wide world, lazy one. I
am interested in The Dowd--I am interested in The Dancing Master--I am
interested in the Hawley Boy--and I am interested in you."
"Why couple me with the Hawley Boy? He is your property."
"Yes, and in his own guileless speech, I'm making a good thing out of him.
When he is slightly more reformed, and has passed his Higher Standard, or
whatever the authorities think fit to exact from him, I shall select a pretty
little girl, the Holt girl, I think, and"--here she waved her hands airily--"
'whom Mrs. Hauksbee bath joined together let no man put asunder.' That's all."
"And when you have yoked May Holt with the most notorious detrimental in
Simla, and earned the undying hatred of Mamma Holt, what will you do with me,
Dispenser of the Destinies of the Universe?"
Mrs.
Pages:
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435