Dual Control / Ship's Company, Part 8.

Never say 'die,' Bert, said Mr. Culpepper, kindly; I like you, and so do most other people who know what's good for 'em; and if Florrie don't like you she can keep single till she does.
Mr. Albert Sharp thanked him.
Come in more oftener, said Mr. Culpepper. If she don't know a steady young man when she sees him, it's her mistake.
Nobody could be steadier than what I am, sighed Mr. Sharp.
Mr. Culpepper nodded. The worst of it is, girls don't like steady young men, he said, rumpling his thin grey hair; that's the silly part of it.
But you was always steady, and Mrs. Culpepper married you, said the young man.
Mr. Culpepper nodded again. She thought I was, and that came to the same thing, he said, composedly. And it ain't for me to say, but she had an idea that I was very good-looking in them days. I had chestnutty hair. She burnt a piece of it only the other day she'd kept for thirty years.
Burnt it? What for? inquired Mr. Sharp.
Words, said the other, lowering his voice. When I want one thing nowadays she generally wants another; and the things she wants ain't the things I want.
Mr. Sharp shook his head and sighed again.
You ain't talkative enough for Florrie, you know, said Mr. Culpepper, regarding him.