Only, I like Mr. PODBURY pretty well, and I
allowed he ought to have fair play, so I concluded I'd keep you around
so you shouldn't get a chance of spoiling your perfectly splendid act
of self-denial--and I guess I've _kept_ you around pretty much all the
time!
_Culch._ (_bitterly_). In other words, you have behaved like a
heartless coquette!
_Miss T._ You may put it at that if you like. Maybe it wouldn't have
been just the square thing to do if you'd been a different sort of
man--but you wanted to be taught that you couldn't have all the fun
of flirtation on _your_ side, and I wasn't afraid the emotional strain
was going to shatter you up to any serious extent. Now it's left off
amusing me, and I guess it's time to stop. I'm as perfectly aware as
I can be that you've been searching around for some way of getting out
of it this long while back--so there's no use of your denying you'll
be real enchanted to get your liberty again!
_Culch._ I may return your charming candour by admitting that
my--er--dismissal will be--well, not wholly without its consolations.
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