‘The speech is not a gallant one. You are scarcely complimentary to the ladies, Lockwood.’
‘It was you that talked of a woman like a cow, or a sack of corn, not I.’
‘I employed an illustration to answer one of your own arguments.’
‘Who is she to be?’ bluntly asked the major.
‘I’ll tell you whom I mean to ask, for I have not put the question yet.’
‘A long, fine whistle expressed the other’s astonishment. ‘And are you so sure she’ll say Yes?’
‘I have no other assurance than the conviction that a woman might do worse.’
‘Humph! perhaps she might. I’m not quite certain; but who is she to be?’
‘Do you remember a visit we made together to a certain Kilgobbin Castle.’
‘To be sure I do. A rum old ruin it was.’