“I remember. Yes, I recall the Sipperley case. He couldn’t bring
himself to the scratch. A marked coldness of the feet, was there not? I
recollect you saying he was letting--what was it?--letting something do
something. Cats entered into it, if I am not mistaken.”
“Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’, sir.”
“That’s right. But how about the cats?”
“Like the poor cat i’ the adage, sir.”
“Exactly. It beats me how you think up these things. And Gussie, you
say, is in the same posish?”
“Yes, sir. Each time he endeavours to formulate a proposal of marriage,
his courage fails him.”
“And yet, if he wants this female to be his wife, he’s got to say so,
what? I mean, only civil to mention it.”
“Precisely, sir.”