"Then, then?—Easy does it."
"Let us be friends again then, Mr. Ben, and I will tell you all, and you will then blame me for being so romantic as to give Johanna advice which has induced her to take a step which, although my reason tells me she is now well protected in, my imagination still peoples with horror."
Ben's eyes opened to an alarming width.
"You recollect meeting us in this street, Ben?"
"Oh, yes."
"When Johanna was disguised?"
"Yes, Miss A. When she had on them, a-hem! You may depend upon it, my dear, there's no good comes of young girls putting on pairs of thingamys. Don't you ever do it."
"But, Mr. Ben, hear me."
"Well—well. I was only saying. You stick to the petticoats, my dear. They become you, and you become them, and don't you be trusting your nice little legs into what-do-you-call-'ems."
"Mr. Ben?"