Part 11 (1/2)
”But you have nothing to say against him?”
”Oh, no, nothing in the world!”
”But you have something on your mind. It is true he's not so youthful as you, but he is not yet old.”
”Oh, no, he's in the prime of life.”
”Do you wish to imply that there is anything against his past?”
”No; for who amongst us has not got a past?”
”Perhaps you wish to make out that he is only marrying Etelka for her money?”
”By no means.”
”Do you accuse him of being a gambler?”
”He never touches cards.”
”A spendthrift?”
”He is the very reverse--stares on both sides of every halfpenny before he parts with it.”
”Do you think him lazy?”
”No, a model of plodding industry.”
”Then what is amiss with his character?”
”It is perfect--almost monotonously so; but he has one peculiarity with which you ought to be made acquainted if you are going to marry your daughter to him.”
”What is that?”
”Well, if you want to know, he's a lunar somnambulist--when the moon is at the full he rises at night from his bed, and, with open eyes, walks about the house in a dream, muttering all kinds of extraordinary things.
If swords or pistols were then within his reach he would probably wound or kill any one, and I shouldn't like to see your daughter murdered in one of these moonlight perambulations.”