"Thinks I, 'My pretty grammarian, there is a little grain of
difference between, 'May I ask,' and, 'I must ask.' Try it again.'
"She didn't speak for a minute; so to relieve her, sais I:
"'When I look round here, and see how charmingly you are located, and
what your occupation is, I hardly think you would feel disposed to
leave it; so perhaps I may as well forbear the proposal, as it isn't
pleasant to be refused.'
"'It depends,' she said, 'upon what the nature of those proposals are,
Mr Slick, and who makes them,' and this time she did give a look of
great complacency and kindness. 'Do put down your hat, Sir. I have
read your Clockmaker,' she continued; 'I really feel quite proud of
the relationship; but I hope you will excuse me for asking, Why did
you put your own name to it, and call it 'Sam Slick the Clockmaker,'
now that you are a distinguished diplomatist, and a member of our
embassy at the court of Victoria the First? It's not an elegant
appellation that, of Clockmaker,' sais she, 'is it?' (She had found
her tongue now.) 'Sam Slick the Clockmaker, a factorist of wooden
clocks especially, sounds trady, and will impede the rise of a
colossal reputation, which has already one foot in the St Lawrence,
and the other in the Mississippi.'
"'And sneezes in the Chesapeake,' sais I.
"'Oh,' said she, in the blandest manner, 'how like you, Mr Slick! you
don't spare a joke even on yourself.
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