`` Isaac Appleby , you ca n't be in earnest ? '' I cried incredulously . `` You could n't be so mean ? '' `` I am in earnest . I want a wife , and I am going to have one . You two will stay up there , and Julius Caesar here will watch you until one of you makes up her mind to take me . You can settle it between yourselves , and let me know when you have come to a decision . '' And with that Isaac walked jauntily into his new house . `` The man ca n't mean it ! '' said Melissa . `` He is trying to play a joke on us . '' `` He does mean it , '' I said gloomily . `` An Appleby never says anything he does n't mean . He will keep us here until one of us consents to marry him . '' `` It wo n't be me , then , '' said Melissa in a calm sort of rage . `` I wo n't marry him if I have to sit on this roof for the rest of my life . You can take him . It 's really you he wants , anyway ; he asked you first . '' I always knew that rankled with Melissa . I thought the situation over before I said anything more .
We certainly could n't get off that roof , and if we could , there was Julius XXXXX .
Appleby Caesar Isaac Melissa anything consents earnest first house wife