"Then I tell you what, Major Biffin, I do not care one straw what the people say—not one straw. You know whose fault it has been if I have been thrown with this stranger. Nobody knows it as well. And mind this, Major Biffin, I shall always do as I like in such matters without reference to you or to any one else. I am my own mistress."
"And do you mean to remain so?"
"Ask no questions, and then you'll be told no stories."
"That's civil."
"If you don't like it, you had better go, for there's more to follow of the same sort."
"You are very sharp to-night."
"Not a bit sharper than I shall be to-morrow."
"One is afraid even to speak to you now."
"Then one had better hold one's tongue."
Mrs. Cox was receiving her suitor rather sharply; but she probably knew his disposition. He did not answer her immediately, but sat biting the top of his cane. "I'll tell you what it is, Mrs. Cox," he said at last, "I don't like this kind of thing."