“Thank you; you’re a fine woman,” said James Barclay, mockingly. “If Mrs. Barclay would only be obliging enough to leave me a widower, I might take you for my second wife.”
“And leave me to support you!” retorted Mrs. Hogan. “Thank you for nothing. I’d rather be a widow all the days of my life than to marry you.”
James Barclay laughed.
“And yet some people think me good looking,” he said.
“Then they must be blind; however, it isn’t the way you look, it’s the way you behave that sets me aginst you.”
“That’s a pity; for your sake, my sweet Mrs. Hogan, I might be tempted to turn over a new leaf.”
“Shure, it’s more than one new leaf you’ll need to turn over, I’m thinkin’.”
Paul laughed at this retort, and even the victim of Mrs. Hogan’s sarcasm was forced to laugh, too. Then, greatly to the relief of all present, the unwelcome visitor left the house.
“Shure, I pity you, Mrs. Barclay,” said Mrs. Hogan, sympathetically, “for havin’ such a husband as that. What made you marry him?”