"And you didn't make sure? My young friend, it strikes me that you fear your fate a good deal."
"Our Mr James hurried me away. But I am afraid—and I don't mind saying so—of risking my last chance."
"Why your last? I wish I were coxcomb enough to be sure it was your last, and that you would lose it."
"But even if she refused us both again, you can't go on persecuting a girl who has said no to you three times."
"Why not? I shall go on asking her, if she says no a hundred times.
It's for her own good. No girl can really wish to be an old maid."
"Rather than marry you or me, perhaps."
"That shows how little she knows about it. But I give you my word she ain't going to lose a good husband through any slackness of mine. You won't find me wasting my opportunities as you have been doing."
"You pitch it pretty strong, Bob, but I believe I deserve it. Still, it was not my fault that I could not settle things that last moment. Will you do this for me, old boy? When we get back to Ranjitgarh, leave me free to speak to her if I meet her first. If I find that it is you after all, I promise you to make no attempt to persuade her, and if you meet her first, of course you will find out for yourself."
"I believe you, my boy! And I only hope we may find out definitely. This uncertainty plays the very mischief with a man when he has time to think of it."
"My dear Bob, you don't mean to say you would rather know that all was up with you than be able to go on hoping?"