'Now, be a good-tempered Eddy, and pretend. And so you are
engaged?'
'And so I am engaged.'
'Is she nice?'
'Charming.'
'Tall?'
'Immensely tall!' Rosa being short.
'Must be gawky, I should think,' is Rosa's quiet commentary.
'I beg your pardon; not at all,' contradiction rising in him.
'What is termed a fine woman; a splendid woman.'
'Big nose, no doubt,' is the quiet commentary again.
'Not a little one, certainly,' is the quick reply, (Rosa's being a
little one.)
'Long pale nose, with a red knob in the middle. I know the sort of
nose,' says Rosa, with a satisfied nod, and tranquilly enjoying the
Lumps.
'You DON'T know the sort of nose, Rosa,' with some warmth; 'because
it's nothing of the kind.'
'Not a pale nose, Eddy?'
'No.' Determined not to assent.
'A red nose? O! I don't like red noses. However; to be sure she
can always powder it.'
'She would scorn to powder it,' says Edwin, becoming heated.
'Would she? What a stupid thing she must be! Is she stupid in
everything?'
'No; in nothing.'
After a pause, in which the whimsically wicked face has not been
unobservant of him, Rosa says:
'And this most sensible of creatures likes the idea of being
carried off to Egypt; does she, Eddy?'
'Yes. She takes a sensible interest in triumphs of engineering
skill: especially when they are to change the whole condition of
an undeveloped country.'
'Lor!' says Rosa, shrugging her shoulders, with a little laugh of
wonder.
'Do you object,' Edwin inquires, with a majestic turn of his eyes
downward upon the fairy figure: 'do you object, Rosa, to her
feeling that interest?'
'Object? my dear Eddy! But really, doesn't she hate boilers and
things?'
'I can answer for her not being so idiotic as to hate Boilers,' he
returns with angry emphasis; 'though I cannot answer for her views
about Things; really not understanding what Things are meant.
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