“Hardly so, I think,” the stubborn Mortimer strikes in. “I take the question to be, whether such a man as you describe, Lady Tippins, does right or wrong in marrying a brave woman (I say nothing of her beauty), who has saved his life, with a wonderful energy and address; whom he knows to be virtuous, and possessed of remarkable qualities; whom he has long admired, and who is deeply attached to him.”

“But, excuse me,” says Podsnap, with his temper and his shirt-collar about equally rumpled; “was this young woman ever a female waterman?”

“Never. But she sometimes rowed in a boat with her father, I believe.”

General sensation against the young woman. Brewer shakes his head. Boots shakes his head. Buffer shakes his head.