"Bet you—the old man's wild for it."
"Bet you—not now. He can't. Why, that woman—"
"Oh! he can pension her off."
"Her?—which her?"
"Well, all of 'em. If he don't get married soon, he won't be fit to marry."
It was here that I entered the conversation. They had not mentioned any name—they had been too gentlemanly to do so. But I knew whom they had in mind, and I was inwardly burning.
"He isn't fit to marry now," I said suddenly.
"What!" They both turned to me in surprise.
"No man who professes to be in love with any good woman," I said, "and lives as he lives is fit for any woman to marry. I am speaking generally," I added, to guard against the suspicion that I knew whom they referred to. "I know Mr. Canter but slightly; but what I say applies to him too."
"Oh! you'd cut out a good many," laughed one of the young men with a glance at his friend.