"then, i think," said mr. lorry, "that i was very unhandsomely dealt with, and that i ought to have had a voice in the selection of my pattern. enough! now, my dear lucie," drawing his arm soothingly round her waist, "i hear them moving in the next room, and miss pross and i, as two formal folks of business, are anxious not to lose the final opportunity of saying something to you that you wish to hear. you leave your good father, my dear, in hands as earnest and as loving as your own; he shall be taken every conceivable care of; during the next fortnight, while you are in warwickshire and thereabouts, even tellson's shall go to the wall (comparatively speaking) before him. and when, at the fortnight's end, he comes to join you and your beloved husband, on your other fortnight's trip in wales, you shall say that we have sent him to you in the best health and in the happiest frame. now, i hear somebody's step coming to the door. let me kiss my dear girl with an old-fashioned bachelor blessing, before somebody comes to claim his own."