"Which was to set up Hymen: well, no matter, it is not much, and cannot last for ever. What will you do when it is out?"
"Borrow from you, Kitty," he replied, laying his hand on her shoulder with a smile; "won't you lend to me?"
"Not a shilling," she answered, looking him full in the face, "unless you give me your word of honour not to go back to Laban and Leah."
"'Faith, she is not such a beauty that I cannot keep the vow of inconstancy to her," he said, rather saucily, "you have my word, Kate. Well, what do you look so grave about?"
"I am thinking, Cornelius, that I am meddling as I never meant to meddle; that I am perhaps aiding to delay your marriage."
Her look was bent attentively on his face.
"Not a bit," he promptly replied; "I consider every picture I paint as a step taken to the altar. Besides," he philosophically added, "I was only twenty-three the other day. There is no time lost."
"They are all alike," indignantly said Kate: "two weeks ago you were half mad because your marriage was delayed, now you talk of there being no time lost."
"Since I am to wait," coolly replied Cornelius, "I confess the more or less does not make so great a difference. I was rather indignant at first, but since then I have thanked Miriam."
"You have?" said Kate.