“Yes; ‘Friendship and Love’ is my toast, whenever I am called upon at the club. What does Campbell say?”
“I’m sure I don’t know.”
“I’ll tell you, Tom:—
“‘Without the smile from heav’nly beauty won,
Oh, what were man? A world without a sun.’”
“Well, I daresay it’s all true,” replied I; “for if a woman does not smile upon a man he’s not very likely to marry her, and therefore has no chance of having a son.”
“Tom, you have no soul for poetry.”
“Perhaps not; I have been too busy to read any.”
“But you should; youth is the age of poetry.”
“Well, I thought it was the time to work; moreover, I don’t understand how youth can be age. But pray tell me, what is it you want of me, for I want to see Mrs St. Felix before dinner-time.”
“Well, then, Tom, I am in love—deeply, desperately, irrevocably, and everlastingly in love.”