"No; do tell me about it?"
"Well, I saw her, that's all; and spoke to her, that's all—and my! she's poorty; but I'll stick to May."
"If I let you," said Peter, squinting his eyes, with a funny little twinkle mixed in their movements.
"Why, I came this very night to ask you, Mr. Dieman," said Eli, as an opener to his subject.
"Really, Eli? Impossible!"
"What's impossible?" asked Eli, disheartened at the word "impossible."
"That you came for that purpose," said Peter with a smile.
"I did, sir; indeed, I did, Mr. Dieman," responded Eli, with much feeling.
"Well?" said Peter, with a bearish look.
"May I have her?" blurted out Eli, as he snapped a piece of imaginary lint from his angled knee with the index finger of his right hand.