t say better than that, Esther, can he?« cried my pet, triumphantly.
    I tried to look at my pet in the wisest manner, but of course I couldn't.
    »Well enough?« I repeated.
    »Yes,« said Richard, »well enough. It's rather jog-trotty and humdrum. But
it'll do as well as anything else!«
    »O! my dear Richard!« I remonstrated.
    »What's the matter?« said Richard.
    »Do as well as anything else!«
    »I don't think there's any harm in that, Dame Durden,« said Ada, looking so
confidingly at me across him; »because if it will do as well as anything else,
it will do very well, I hope.«
    »O yes, I hope so,« returned Richard, carelessly tossing his hair from his
forehead. »After all, it may be only a kind of probation till our suit is - I
forgot though. I am not to mention the suit. Forbidden ground! O yes, it's all
right enough. Let us talk about something else.«
    Ada would have done so, willingly, and with a full persuasion that we had
brought the question to a most satisfactory state. But I thought it would be
useless to stop there, so I began again.
    »No, but, Richard,« said I, »and my dear Ada! Consider how important it is
to you both, and what a point of honour it is towards your cousin, that you,
Richard, should be quite in earnest without any reservation. I think we had
better talk about this, really, Ada. It will be too late, very soon.«
    »O yes! We must talk about it!« said Ada. »But I think Richard is right.«
    What was the use of my trying to look wise, when she was so pretty, and so
engaging, and so fond of him!
    »Mr. and Mrs. Badger were here yesterday, Richard,« said I, »and they seemed
disposed to think that you had no great liking for the profession.«
    »Did they though?« said Richard. »O! Well, that rather alters the case,
because I had no idea that they thought so, and I should not have liked to
disappoint or inconvenience them. The fact is, I don't care much about it. But
O, it don't matter! It'll do
