"And I should have told you it would ruin me--"
"And that would have made me more disappointed in you than ever, and provoked me to call you a pauper-monster.--"
"And then I would have twitted you about being anything but an heiress yourself when I married you--"
"--Which would have thrown me into hysterics--"
"--Which would have made me lock you up in your room, and leave the house--"
"--For which I would have sued you for an Indiana divorce--"
"--Thus driving me to commit suicide--"
--"And bringing myself under a cruel public prejudice seriously detrimental to my future prospects."
Gloriously excited and made nearly breathless by their friendly rivalry in thus specifying what must have been the successive results of their union without plenty of money, the animated pair panted at each other in a kind of imaginative intoxication, and then shook hands almost deliriously.
In a moment after, however, Mr. DROOD thrust his hands into his pockets and presented an aspect of sudden discomfiture.