He now came up to the bay window, wiping his face, and fanning himself, and saying—
“Good evening, ladies! It is a perfectly delightful evening—though, to be sure, it is insufferably warm.”
Mrs. Vivian immediately challenged him with, “Mr. Bolling, we are anxious to know your opinion upon these lines of Pope;” and she read them to him, and put the book in his hands. He took it, and wiped his face, and fanned himself—but these cooling operations seemed to heat him all the more, for his face grew very red and his flaxen hair crisped tightly as he gazed upon the page, and said: “Eh, yes, that’s all right—certainly!”
“We believe it right, but what does it mean?”
“Mean! Why, this is what it means—
‘Binding nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will;’
certainly—yes.”
“Please to explain yourself, Mr. Bolling,” said the widow, while India gazed on in languid amusement.
Uncle Billy wiped his forehead, and said, “Why I don’t think ladies understand these grave theological matters.”