"I am getting an old man," he said, with supreme egotism, "and you cannot
expect to have me with you much longer."
"But I do expect it," replied Dora cheerfully. "I am sorry to disappoint
you, papa, but I do expect it most decidedly."
This rather spoilt the lugubrious gravity of the situation.
"Well, thank Heaven! I am a hearty man yet," admitted the Rector rather
more hopefully; "but still you cannot expect to have your parents with
you all your life, you know."
"I think it is wiser not to look too far into the future," replied Dora,
warding off.
"I should look much more happily into the future," replied the Rector,
with the deliberation of the domestic autocrat, "if I knew that you had a
good husband to take care of you."
In a flash of thought Dora traced it all back to Arthur, through Mrs.
Agar; and her would-be lover fell still further in her estimation. He
seemed to be fated to show himself at every turn the very antitype to her
ideal.
"Ah," she laughed, "but suppose I got a bad one? You are always saying
that marriage is a lottery, and I don't believe the remark is original.
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