COX (aside). So did I. Singular coincidence!
BOX. I’d no sooner done so than I was sorry for it.
COX (aside). So was I.
BOX. My infatuated widow offered to purchase my discharge, on condition that I’d lead her to the altar.
COX (aside). Just my case!
BOX. I hesitated—at last I consented.
COX (aside). I consented at once!
BOX. Well, sir, the day fixed for the happy ceremony at length drew near—in fact, too near to be pleasant—so I suddenly discovered that I wasn’t worthy to possess her, and I told her so; when, instead of being flattered by the compliment, she flew upon me like a tiger of the female gender. I rejoined—when suddenly something whizzed past me, within an inch of my ear, and shivered into a thousand fragments against the mantle-piece—it was the slop-basin. I retaliated with a teacup—we parted, and the next morning I was served with a notice of action for breach of promise.
COX. Well, sir?
BOX. Well, sir, ruin stared me in the face—the action proceeded against me with gigantic strides. I took a desperate resolution; I left my home early one morning, with one suit of clothes on my back, and another tied up in a bundle under my arm. I arrived on the cliffs, opened my bundle, deposited the suit of clothes on the very verge of the precipice, took one look down into the yawning gulf beneath me, and walked off in the opposite direction.