 darling Jane.«
    »Indeed! I considered it a very natural and necessary one: he had talked of
his future wife dying with him. What did he mean by such a pagan idea? I had no
intention of dying with him - he might depend on that.«
    »Oh, all he longed, all he prayed for, was that I might live with him! Death
was not for such as I.«
    »Indeed it was: I had as good a right to die when my time came as he had:
but I should bide that time, and not be hurried away in a suttee.«
    »Would I forgive him for the selfish idea, and prove my pardon by a
reconciling kiss?«
    »No: I would rather be excused.«
    Here I heard myself apostrophized as a »hard little thing«; and it was
added, »any other woman would have been melted to marrow at hearing such stanzas
crooned in her praise.«
    I assured him I was naturally hard - very flinty, and that he would often
find me so; and that, moreover, I was determined to show him divers rugged
points in my character before the ensuing four weeks elapsed: he should know
fully what sort of a bargain he had made, while there was yet time to rescind
it.
    »Would I be quiet, and talk rationally?«
    »I would be quiet if he liked; and as to talking rationally, I flattered
myself I was doing that now.«
    He fretted, pished, and pshawed. »Very good,« I thought; »you may fume and
fidget as you please: but this is the best plan to pursue with you, I am
certain. I like you more than I can say; but I'll not sink into a bathos of
sentiment: and with this needle of repartee I'll keep you from the edge of the
gulph too; and, moreover, maintain by its pungent aid that distance between you
and myself most conducive to our real mutual advantage.«
    From less to more, I worked him up to considerable irritation; then, after
he had retired, in dudgeon, quite to the other end of the room, I got up, and
saying, »I wish you good-night, sir,« in my natural and wonted respectful
manner, I slipped out by the side-door and got away.
    The system thus entered on, I pursued during the whole season of probation;
and with the best success. He was kept, to be sure, rather cross and crusty:
