“Oh, no! I detest red hair—and then I never could marry a man unless I loved him. The fact is, it wouldn’t do for me to marry at all, for I have such a temper.”
“Oh, bother the temper! I am willing to risk it. Laying all jokes aside, I love you devotedly, and won’t you promise to be my wife?”
“If I lose my temper and break your head with the broom handle, you won’t beat me?”
“No.”
“If I break up the furniture, while in a passion, you’ll go and buy more?”
“Yes.”
“Very well, I’ll take your case under advisement, and give you an answer when we get back home, provided you don’t conclude to withdraw the proposition before it is too late.”
“See here, Scottie, this is a matter of too much importance to me to be made the subject of a joke; I don’t believe you mean to wound my feelings, yet I had rather you would not use so much levity about it. I loved you at first sight, and meant to ask you then to marry me, but your father seemed to dislike me so that I was afraid.”
“In the first place, Mr. Burk——”
“Pshaw! Scottie, don’t call me Mr. Burk, but call me Ralleigh.”