The old lawyer sat down, took a penknife from a drawer, and throwing himself back in his chair, began to pare his nails.
“Well, what is it?” he said.
“I’m very uncomfortable about the state of affairs down yonder.”
“So am I, and I get no peace of my life.”
“How’s that?”
“The wife!”
“Oh! Shouldn’t have married.”
“Too late to alter that now.”
“But what do you mean?”
“Mean? Why, of course, situated as we were, the wife agreed to poor little Gertrude’s wishes, and stayed at The Mynns to play propriety till those two were married; and now I want to get home to my own fireside, but we seem regularly stuck, and the worst of it is, we are unwelcome visitors.”