"Why, you don't mean to say, FLORA, that it's all--"
"--False? No, you absurd thing! But curling irons, and oil, and crimping pins have to be used hours and hours."
"Ha! ha!" laughed EDWIN DROOD, "I see the point; you've had to make-up for me. Now I dare say that you have thought my boots, which I have worn in your company, were the right size for me? They're really one and a half sizes too small, and almost kill me. As for gloves, I never wear any at all except when I come to see you."
"And my complexion, dear brother?"
"Oh, I know all about that, darling sister. I couldn't find any fault with that, so long as my own seal-ring, which you thought so rich-looking, was only plated."
The little creature burst into a laugh of delight, and pressed his arm with sisterly enthusiasm. "And we can be perfectly honest with each other; can't we, EDDY? As a partnership for life until death should us part is no longer our object, we have no need to utterly deceive each other in everything."
"No," answered the equally happy young man; "as we're not trying to marry now, we may as well drop the swindle."
"And just suppose we'd gone on and got married," cried the Flowerpot with dancing eyes. "When it was too late, you'd have found out what I really was--"
"And you'd have found me out," interrupted EDWIN, vivaciously.
"I should have wanted more expenditure upon myself, for giving me my proper place in society, than you, with your limited means, could have possibly afforded.--"