“My dear Johnny!” in an odd, muffled voice.
“Had you rather not?” he began.
“Oh, no! Oh, no, no! It is the very thing. Only when you began I was so afraid you wanted to marry some dreadful person!”
“You needn’t be afraid of that. Ars Medico, will be bride enough for me till I meet another Mother Carey, and that I shan’t do in a hurry.”
“You silly fellow, you aren’t practising the smoothness of tongue of the popular physician.”
“Don’t you think I mean it?” said John, rather hurt.
“My dear boy, you must excuse me. It is not often one gets so many compliments in a breath, besides having one of the first wishes of one’s heart granted.”
“Do you mean that you really wished this?”
“So much that I am saying, ‘Thank God!’ in my heart all the time.”
“Well, my father and mother thought you might be wishing me to be a barrister, or something swell.”