“Don’t be a fool.”
“Well, dear madam, it is but right that, standing in this future relation to my friend, you should know this fact: Mr. Bertram has had a very large property left him.”
“Lawk a mussy, sir!”
“But he is inclined to refuse it on account of his social principles, with which, no doubt, you are acquainted. Now, dear madam, tell us freely your opinion as a person of sound common sense, and one who is about to be closely allied to him. Should he refuse it, or should he accept it?”
“Dearie, dearie, sir! How can anybody hev left good money to such a gawk!”
Fanshawe laughs aloud: “When Truth comes out of her well she is seldom polite! Never mind, Mrs. Brown, you can make your peace with your son-in-law some other time. Only tell us now, for we are going to the lawyers on this momentous errand. Ought he to accept or to refuse?”
Annie’s mother is flattered at the deference to her opinion.
“Well, sir, it ain’t for the like o’ me to judge for the likes o’ you. But, if ye want my plain opinion, it is this ’un: if he take the proputty he’ll look silly. But if he don’t take it he’ll be silly; and he’ll be sorry all his life.”
“Mrs. Brown,” says Bertram, “your daughter would not say so.”
“Likely not, sir. She’s a slim snippet of a girl as haven’t felt any o’ the weight o’ livin’ yet. When she hev she’ll know a full money-box is the softest pillar one can lay a tired head on any night.”