' Wasn't that delicious? The Dancing Master
maundered and raved till the Hawley Boy suggested that he should burst in and
beat him. His voice runs up into an impassioned squeak when he is afraid. The
Dowd must be an extraordinary woman. She explained that had he been a bachelor
she might not have objected to his devotion; but since he was a married man
and the father of a very nice baby, she considered him a hypocrite, and this
she repeated twice. She wound up her drawl with: 'An I'm tellin' you this
because your wife is angry with me, an' I hate quarrellin' with any other
woman, an' I like your wife. You know how you have behaved for the last six
weeks. You shouldn't have done it, indeed you shouldn't. You're too old an'
fat.' Can't you imagine how The Dancing Master would wince at that! 'Now go
away,' she said. 'I don't want to tell you what I think of you, because I
think you are not nice. I'll stay he-ere till the next dance begins.' Did you
think that the creature had so much in her?"
"I never studied her as closely as you did. It sounds unnatural. What
happened?"
"The Dancing Master attempted blandishment, reproof, jocularity, and the style
of the Lord High Warden, and I had almost to pinch the Hawley Boy to make him
keep quiet.
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