“Well Piggywiggies,” said R. W. , “how de do tonight? What I was thinking of, my dear,” to Mrs. Wilfer already seated in a corner with folded gloves, “was, that as we have let our first floor so well, and as we have now no place in which you could teach pupils even if pupils⁠—”

“The milkman said he knew of two young ladies of the highest respectability who were in search of a suitable establishment, and he took a card,” interposed Mrs. Wilfer, with severe monotony, as if she were reading an Act of Parliament aloud. “Tell your father whether it was last Monday, Bella.”

“But we never heard any more of it, ma,” said Bella, the elder girl.

“In addition to which, my dear,” her husband urged, “if you have no place to put two young persons into⁠—”