"No fear: I was much too madly in love with Bel."
"Was?"
"Dobbin!"
"Sorry—didn't mean to be impertinent."
"I don't believe you. Still, I'm so fond of you, I'll forgive you—this once."
"Won't have to twice. I only—well, naturally, I wanted to know whether or not it had taken."
"Taken?"
"Your matrimonial inoculation."
"I think one may safely say it has. I've grown so old and wise in marriage, it really seems funny to remember I was ever an innocent."
"Four years——"