To talk of those merry school days makes one young again . '' `` Why , you a n't particularly old at any time , are you ? '' said Tackleton . `` Look at my sober , plodding husband there , '' returned Dot . `` He adds twenty years to my age at least . Do n't you , John ? '' `` Forty , '' John replied . `` How many you 'll add to Mary 's , I am sure I do n't know , '' said Dot , laughing . `` But she ca n't be much less than a hundred years of age on her next birthday . '' `` Ha , ha ! '' laughed Tackleton . Hollow as a drum that laugh , though . And he looked as if he could have twisted Dot 's neck comfortably . `` Dear , dear ! '' said Dot . `` Only to remember how we used to talk , at school , about the husbands we would choose . I do n't know how young , and how handsome , and how gay , and how lively mine was not to be ! And as to May 's ! -- Ah dear ! I do n't know whether to laugh or cry , when I think what silly girls we were . ''
May seemed to know which XXXXX do ; for the colour flashed into her face , and tears stood in her eyes .
Mary Tackleton about as at days than that to years