"No; I don't think you have. You are never cross, though you are often ferocious."
"But I haven't been once ferocious,—nor has George."
"He would have been the most ungrateful man alive if he had," said Alice. "We've done nothing since we've started but realize from him that picture in 'Punch' of the young gentleman at Jeddo who had a dozen ladies to wait upon him."
"And now he has got to go home to his lodgings, and wait upon himself again. Poor fellow! I do pity you, George."
"No, you don't;—nor does Alice. I believe girls always think that a bachelor in London has the happiest of all lives. It's because they think so that they generally want to put an end to the man's condition."
"It's envy that makes us want to get married,—not love," said Kate.
"It's the devil in some shape, as often as not," said he. "With a man, marriage always seems to him to be an evil at the instant."
"Not always," said Alice.
"Almost always;—but he does it, as he takes physic, because something worse will come if he don't. A man never likes having his tooth pulled out, but all men do have their teeth pulled out,—and they who delay it too long suffer the very mischief."
"I do like George's philosophy," said Kate, getting up from her chair as she spoke; "it is so sharp, and has such a pleasant acid taste about it; and then we all know that it means nothing. Alice, I'm going up-stairs to begin the final packing."