"And may pretend to as much?"
"He is not a man of pretensions. But, taking your words as they mean, I should say, yes."
"Is it any use to offer him advice?"
"I think he generally hears mine—if he is not too far gone in something."
"Ah!—Well, Philip, tell him to think what he is doing."
"O, I have put that before him."
"He would make himself a great goose."
"Perhaps I ought to have some arguments wherewith to substantiate that prophecy."
"He can see the whole for himself. Let him think of the fitness of things. Imagine such a girl set to preside over his house—a house like this, for instance. Imagine her helping him receive his guests; sitting at the head of his table. Fancy it; a girl who has been accustomed to sanded floors, perhaps, and paper window-shades, and who has fed on pumpkins and pork all her life."
Mr. Dillwyn smiled, as his eye roved over what of his sister's house
was visible from where he sat, and he remembered the meal-times in
Shampuashuh; he smiled, but his eye had more thought in it than Mrs.
Burrage liked. She was watching him.