"Look at Aunt Agatha," said Beth, "married to a man who doesn't do anything, who just sits and moons and dreams."
"Hang it all, Beth, you can't think I'd spend my life shut up in a church if you married me. I'm not that sort at all."
"You'd spend your life playing about with motor-cars and things," she said. "And, Jimmy, dear, can't you see that I couldn't bear to be married to a man who didn't do anything?"
"I quite grasp that," said Jimmy.
"Then why go on worrying me? For it does worry me."
"I'm not going to worry you, Beth. What I want to do is to propose——"
"I won't be proposed to again to-day."
"I'm not going to propose in that sense of the word," said Jimmy. "I'm going to make a proposition. Suppose I go off now and unearth that smuggler's ghost, find out what he's at and why. Would you count that doing something? Something useful? Hang it all, Beth, I think you ought to. The old knights and fellows of that sort who went about killing dragons and giants were looked upon as most valuable members of society and the most conscientious girls were delighted to marry them. If I get rid of a ghost—— You may say what you like, Beth, but a ghost in a small village is a regular pest, much worse than most dragons. If I collar the malignant spirit of that smuggler and stop him throwing stones it'll be something done, won't it? A jolly sight more useful thing really than being chairman of a committee for infant welfare, which is the sort of thing you think I ought to do. If I smother that ghost, Beth, will you marry me?"
"I'll—I'll think about it, Jimmy."