‘Only a week,’ assented Watkins Tottle.
‘Oh! more than that,’ exclaimed the lady, in a tone of surprise.
‘Indeed!’ said Tottle.
‘More than a month—more than two months!’ said Miss Lillerton.
‘Rather odd, this,’ thought Watkins.
‘Oh!’ he said, recollecting Parsons’s assurance that she had known him from report, ‘I understand. But, my dear madam, pray, consider. The longer this acquaintance has existed, the less reason is there for delay now. Why not at once fix a period for gratifying the hopes of your devoted admirer?’
‘It has been represented to me again and again that this is the course I ought to pursue,’ replied Miss Lillerton, ‘but pardon my feelings of delicacy, Mr. Tottle—pray excuse this embarrassment—I have peculiar ideas on such subjects, and I am quite sure that I never could summon up fortitude enough to name the day to my future husband.’
‘Then allow me to name it,’ said Tottle eagerly.
‘I should like to fix it myself,’ replied Miss Lillerton, bashfully, ‘but I cannot do so without at once resorting to a third party.’
‘A third party!’ thought Watkins Tottle; ‘who the deuce is that to be, I wonder!’