And she wo n't . You never saw two such determined mortals . They get it from their grandfather on the mother 's side -- old Absalom Gordon . There is no such stubbornness on the Penhallow side . His obstinacy was a proverb , my dear -- actually a proverb . What ever he said , he would stick to if the skies fell . He was a terrible old man to swear , too , '' added Mrs. Frederick , dropping into irrelevant reminiscence . `` He spent a long while in a mining camp in his younger days and he never got over it -- the habit of swearing , I mean . It would have made your blood run cold , my dear , to have heard him go on at times . And yet he was a real good old man every other way . He could n't help it someway . He tried to , but he used to say that profanity came as natural to him as breathing . It used to mortify his family terribly . Fortunately , none of them took after him in that respect . But he 's dead -- and one should n't speak ill of the dead . I must go and get Mattie Penhallow to do my hair . I would burst these sleeves clean out if I tried to do it myself and I do n't want to dress over again . You wo n't be likely to talk to Romney about Lucinda again , my dear Cecilia ? '' `` Fifteen years ! '' murmured Mrs. George helplessly to the dahlias .
`` Engaged for fifteen XXXXX and never speaking to each other !
Cecilia George Gordon Lucinda Penhallow dahlias days obstinacy someway years