Part 7 (1/2)

_Bailiff's Daughter_.--”Oh, well! doubtless I shall be able to dispose of them on my way home, though times is 'ard!”

_True Love_.--”Do you mean that you will ”peddle” them along the road?”

_Bailiff's Daughter_.--”You understand me better than usual,--in fact to perfection.”

He dismounts and strides to the back of the cart, lifts the covers, seizes the rabbits, flings some silver contemptuously into the basket, and looks about him for a place to bury his bargain. A small boy approaching in the far distance will probably bag the game.

_Bailiff's Daughter_ (modestly).--”Thanks for your trade, sir, rather ungraciously bestowed, and we 'opes for a continuance of your past fyvors.”

_True Love_ (leaning on the wheel of the trap).--”Let us stop this nonsense. What did you hope to gain by running away?”

_Bailiff's Daughter_.--”Distance and absence.”

_True Love_.--”You knew you couldn't prevent my offering myself to you sometime or other.”

_Bailiff's Daughter_.--”Perhaps not; but I could at least defer it, couldn't I?”

_True Love_.--”Why postpone the inevitable?”

_Bailiff's Daughter_.--”Doubtless I shrank from giving you the pain of a refusal.”

_True Love_.--”Perhaps; but do you know what I suspect?”

_Bailiff's Daughter_.--”I'm not a suspicious person, thank goodness!”

_True Love_.--”That, on the contrary, you are wilfully withholding from me the joy of acceptance.”

_Bailiff's Daughter_.--”If I intended to accept you, why did I run away?”

_True Love_.--”To make yourself more desirable and precious, I suppose.”

_Bailiff's Daughter_ (with the most confident coquetry).--”Did I succeed?”

_True Love_.--”No; you failed utterly.”

_Bailiff's Daughter_ (secretly piqued).--”Then I am glad I tried it.”

_True Love_.--”You couldn't succeed because you were superlatively desirable and precious already; but you should never have experimented.

Don't you know that Love is a high explosive?”

_Bailiff's Daughter_.--”Is it? Then it ought always to be labelled 'dangerous,' oughtn't it? But who thought of suggesting matches? I'm sure I didn't!”

_True Love_.--”No such luck; I wish you would.”

_Bailiff's Daughter_.--”According to your theory, if you apply a match to Love it is likely to 'go off.'”