“No, really, my dear Doctor, you must excuse me if I appear to dwell on this rather, because I feel so very strongly. I call it quite my monomania, it is such a subject of mine. You are a blessing to us. You really are a Boon, you know.”

“Nonsense, nonsense,” said the Doctor.

“No, no, I beg your pardon,” retorted the Old Soldier. “With nobody present, but our dear and confidential friend Mr. Wickfield, I cannot consent to be put down. I shall begin to assert the privileges of a mother-in-law, if you go on like that, and scold you. I am perfectly honest and outspoken. What I am saying, is what I said when you first overpowered me with surprise⁠—you remember how surprised I was?⁠—by proposing for Annie. Not that there was anything so very much out of the way, in the mere fact of the proposal⁠—it would be ridiculous to say that!⁠—but because, you having known her poor father, and having known her from a baby six months old, I hadn’t thought of you in such a light at all, or indeed as a marrying man in any way⁠—simply that, you know.”