‘A delicate thought!—a fellow betting on the age of the girl he’s going to marry!’
‘Ten o’clock!—nearly half-past ten!’ said Lockwood, rising from his chair. ‘I must go and have some breakfast. I meant to have been down in time to-day, and breakfasted with the old fellow and his daughter; for coming late brings me to a tête-à-tête with the Greek damsel, and it isn’t jolly, I assure you.’
‘Don’t you speak?’
‘Never a word?’ She’s generally reading a newspaper when I go in. She lays it down; but after remarking that she fears I’ll find the coffee cold, she goes on with her breakfast, kisses her Maltese terrier, asks him a few questions about his health, and whether he would like to be in a warmer climate, and then sails away.’
‘And how she walks!’
‘Is she bored here?’
‘She says not.’
‘She can scarcely like these people; they ‘re not the sort of thing she has ever been used to.’