"You know as well as I do. What is the use of pretending ignorance? Are you going or no?"
"Have they all been such fools as to go?"
"Most of them have."
"What a confounded shame not to let a man enjoy a quiet evening. I suppose I must go with the rest, but it is a deuced bore all the same."
"You think everything a bore that entails a little trouble."
"Yes, I do. That fellow Charles ought to know better than to drag us out against a rascally set of low ruffians."
"Don't work yourself into a rage," said his sister, "it is not worth while."
"No, of course not," replied he, yawning and closing his book. "Well I suppose I must be off, so here goes."
"I ought to have been born the man, not you," said Frances, contemptuously.
"With all my heart," said he, "and what an easy life I would have had of it."