Here's this girl Clem, the
finest bit of flesh I've seen for a long time; I've more than half a
mind to see if she won't be fool enough to marry me. I'm not a
bad-looking fellow, that's the truth, and she may have taken a real
liking to me. Seems to me that I should have come in for a
Comfortable thing in my old age; if I haven't a daughter to provide
for my needs, at all events I shall have a wife who can be persuaded
into doing so. When the old woman gets out of the way I must have a
little quiet talk with Clem.'
The opportunity he desired was not long in offering itself. Having
made an excellent breakfast, he dragged his chair up to the fender
again, and reached a pipe from the mantel-piece, where he had left
it last night. Tobacco he carried loose in his waistcoat pocket; it
came forth in the form of yellowish dust, intermingled with all
sorts of alien scraps. When be had lit his pipe, he poised the chair
on its hind-legs, clasped his hands over his bald crown, and
continued his musing with an air of amiable calm. Smoke curled up
from the corner of his loose lips, and occasionally, removing his
pipe for an instant, he spat skilfully between the bars of the
grate.
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