_Can_ you? Too good of
you, I'm sure! WATTY will chaff me when he hears I've been borrowing
like this, ha, ha!" Here your ear, sharpened by affection, catches
a well-known turn of the latch-key at your front-door. "Why, how
fortunate!" you exclaim, "here _is_ my husband already, Captain
CAULKER. He will come in as soon as he has changed his shoes."
"Capital!" cries the Captain. "Look here, Mrs. GOSLING,--I've just
thought of a little joke. I want to see if he'll _know_ me. Now you go
and talk to him a little, and--presently, you know--say there's a man
in the drawing-room, who's come to wind the clocks, and then I'll come
in to where you are, and make believe to wind the clock there--do you
see? I'd bet anything he won't spot me at first!"
You are young enough to be delighted at the idea of such a pretty
little comedy, and you trip away to the study, and archly keep
dear WILLIAM in conversation until the Captain is ready to make
his appearance. At last, a little impatiently, you give the cue by
mentioning that there is a clock-winder in the drawing-room. WILLIAM
is amusingly suspicious, and insists on seeing the man. As the
scene will be just as funny in the drawing-room, you accompany him
thither--but there is no gallant Captain there affecting to wind
your charming little Sevres clock (a wedding present)--he has gone,
and--alas! without leaving a timepiece for anybody else to wind.
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