"Don't swear;" she sneered, as he paused for a suitable cognomen to bestow upon Buzzard.
"I wa'n't agoin' to!" he said angrily; "not but what I've sufficient cause in your letting that unclean bird in amongst us decent folks."
"There now; that'll do fur to-night," she snapped. "Tim. Buzzard ain't no more an unclean bird than you are; he's twicet as good lookin' and sings like a nightingale.
"But now see here; don't let's quarrel, but go to work together to bring things round right. You don't want him to cut you out with Mildred Keith, and I don't want her to cut me out with him. So now you just spunk up and pop the question right off. If you don't, one or other o' them fellers'll get ahead o' you; you may just take my word for that."
Gotobed dropped his head into his hands and sighed deeply, then rose and walked the floor.
Rhoda Jane watched him with an eager, half-contemptuous look.
"Well!" he said at length, "I wisht I knowed how!"
"Knowed how! you needn't make many words about it; 'tain't like makin' up a sermon or a president's message."