MRS. MUNNING. Have you asked?
PAUL. Asked? I haven't. It's not a thing to rush at, mother. I've to look at every side before I take a leap like that.
MRS. MUNNING. What are you frightened of?
PAUL. I wouldn't like to get refused. I don't so much as know she thinks of me at all.
MRS. MUNNING. And what do you think I'm doing all these days? I've done nothing else but keep you in her mind. She knows it all from A to Z. Why, only yesterday I gave her the Bible to look at, and you know what's written in the front of it. There's every prize you ever won at school on record with the date and——
PAUL. And what she found in the Bible was that it's Zack's birthday to-day and she's giving him a present.
MRS. MUNNING. Well, she's got a kind heart. I saw her give a beggar sixpence yesterday.
PAUL. That isn't kindness. It's extravagance, and I've no taste for a wife who throws her money away.
MRS. MUNNING. She couldn't throw it if she hadn't got it first. And I'd trust you to let her know that charity begins at home when she's your wife.
PAUL. There's something in that.