“Then, gentlemen,” said he, “please to understand that the lady in question is my wife, and that she was so before I came to Mudford.”
“Then, sir,” we all exclaimed with one voice, “how do you account for your conduct to Miss Playfair?”
“Wait a moment, gentlemen,” he said; “to explain that matter I must fetch something from the next room. I will be back again directly.”
He left the room, and we gazed on each other with looks of blank astonishment; but before we could say a word, he returned and resumed his seat.
Finding that he did not speak for some time, we began to grow impatient, and asked him for his promised explanation.
“Explanation?” said he, as if he had forgotten all about it. “What explanation, pray?”
“Why, your explanation about Miss Playfair!”
“Gentlemen,” he said, in the coolest manner possible, “I have nothing to say about Miss Playfair, except that she is a very charming and estimable young lady, and that I hope soon to make her my wife.”
“Your wife!” we exclaimed. “Why, you have a wife already in this very house!”
He looked from one to the other with an appearance of the greatest bewilderment; and then said, with the utmost coolness,