“What do you mean by fate?”
“A woman, Rose, a lady o’ high degree who hath constituted herself my determined though somewhat hysterical Nemesis. She dedicated me to her vengeance five weary years ago, and ever since, when moved to by splenetic humours, for she is a vaporish lady, she hath wrought to such purpose that here am I fleeing back home to marry her——”
“To ... oh ... to ... marry her?”
“Precisely! Why d’ye gasp, child?”
“But if she hath been ... is ... your enemy——”
“I will make her wife to the ‘Wicked Dering’!”
“Are you so—so sure you can?”
“As sure as life, Rose!”
“Life is a thing most uncertain, I’ve heard, Sir John!”
“Aye, but not till we’re dead, Rose.”