‘Oh no, the girl is all right. She is now the popular Miss Howard, of the --- Theatre.’
‘The deuce she is! Why, then, don’t you make it up with her? A bracelet and a dinner at the Star and Garter will do the trick.’
‘I fear not. The fact is, I met her accidentally a short time ago, and she held her head as high as Lucifer.’
‘Only acting, my dear boy. ’Tis only pretty Fanny’s way. ’Tis well—she might have come to you for money.’
‘I wish she had. That would have given me a pull on her.’
‘She might have served you with an action for breach of promise.’
‘That would have been too ridiculous.’
‘She was young. I don’t feel sure that she might not have had you up under the Act which makes the parent the guardian of the child till she is sixteen.’
‘Oh no, she was older than that.’
‘Perhaps she wants to excite you. She knows now that you are a single man, and she thinks it well to begin the renewal of her acquaintance with a little seasonable aversion.’