"Ha! humph!" tossing off a beaker of port; "then it just comes to this, you don't think any woman good enough to be the wife of Mr. Lisle! Now honestly, Gilbert, have you ever seen a girl you would have married?"
Dead silence succeeded this question.
"Come, Gilbert," pursued the old gentleman remorselessly.
"Well, yes—such a person has existed," at length admitted his victim most reluctantly.
"And where is she? Why did you not marry her? Where did you meet her?"
"I met her in the Andamans."
"The Andamans! Those cannibal islands! This is another of your confounded jokes!" Now looking alarmingly angry.—"I know as well as you do, that there are only savages there. Do you take me for a fool, sir?"
"There was a large European community at Port Blair. As to taking you for a fool, it would be the last thing to occur to me—on the contrary, the young lady took me for one."
"Then she never made a greater mistake in her life,—never. And why did it not come off?"
"She preferred another fellow, that was all."