"Weakness?" murmured the Major.
"And so masculinely audacious! O dear sir, the vain hours I have spent trying to instil into her a little ladylike languor, a soft and feminine meekness! But alas! Betty is anything but meek—now is she?"
"Why—ah—perhaps not, mam—not exactly meek, as 'twere—and yet——"
"And she fears nought i' the world, living or dead, but a mouse!"
"But pray, mam, what should she fear?"
"La sir, what but your naughty, wicked sex. I vow, ere to-day, I've swooned at the merest sight of a man!"
"You—you've conquered the habit, I trust, mam?" enquired the Major a little anxiously.
"Indeed no, dear Major, I fear I never shall!"
"You don't feel any—inclination—now, mam?"
"Nay sir, unless you give me cause——"