"That his reform is skin deep, and that, like all other serpents, he sloughs his skin once a year."
"Bobby!"
"Sarah Maria!"
"Don't make fun of me because I was named for a spinster aunt. I can't help my name."
"No; it's past help. I'd change it, if I were you. Just think how it would sound at the altar, while the alteration was going on! 'I, Sarah Maria, take thee—'"
Sally interposed hurriedly.
"But, to go back to Beatrix, if you feel in this way about Mr. Lorimer, why don't you do something about it?"
"Speak to her father, or something."
Bobby's answer had an accent of utter gravity which somehow belied the frivolous form of his words.