‘Ah!’ cried the little woman with all her heart, ‘that it is!’
‘Although,’ pursued Tim ‘although it makes one feel quite solitary and cast away. Now don’t it?’
Miss La Creevy said she didn’t know. And why should she say she didn’t know? Because she must have known whether it did or not.
‘It’s almost enough to make us get married after all, isn’t it?’ said Tim.
‘Oh, nonsense!’ replied Miss La Creevy, laughing. ‘We are too old.’
‘Not a bit,’ said Tim; ‘we are too old to be single. Why shouldn’t we both be married, instead of sitting through the long winter evenings by our solitary firesides? Why shouldn’t we make one fireside of it, and marry each other?’
‘Oh, Mr. Linkinwater, you’re joking!’
‘No, no, I’m not. I’m not indeed,’ said Tim. ‘I will, if you will. Do, my dear!’
‘It would make people laugh so.’
‘Let ‘em laugh,’ cried Tim stoutly; ‘we have good tempers I know, and we’ll laugh too. Why, what hearty laughs we have had since we’ve known each other!’