"Are you mocking me, sir?"
"Pray, what do you mean?"
"I ask you to receive her at once."
"Well! the delay cannot be long. I do not apprehend that you will be kept from your happiness many days."
"I think it will be some time, sir!" said Richard, sighing deeply.
"And what mental freak is this that can induce you to postpone it and play with your first duty?"
"What is my first duty, sir?"
"Since you are married, to be with your wife."
"I have heard that from an old woman called Berry!" said Richard to himself, not intending irony.
"Will you receive her at once?" he asked resolutely.