“Voilà, mon cher Railsford, you do not get always billets-doux?”
Monsieur had heard, of course, as everyone else had, of the new master’s matrimonial prospects.
“No,” said Railsford, gloomily; “not always,” and he pitched Mr Bickers’s letter into the grate as he spoke.
“Perhaps,” said monsieur, “you do not always write them. I advise you to not answer that letter.”
“Why?” said Railsford, “how do you know what that letter is?”
“I do not know; but I think that it does need no answer.”
Railsford laughed. “You are setting up as a soothsayer, monsieur. Suppose I tell you that letter does need an answer, quickly?”
“Then, I say, somebody else will answer it better than you will.”
Railsford picked the crushed-up letter off the coals just in time to save it from the flames.
“How should you answer it, monsieur?”