Happy Thought Hall - Part 26
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Part 26

Then I will confide in you. I don't mind telling you--

BOX.

I have no objection to inform you--

c.o.x.

That I am--

BOX.

So am I--

c.o.x.

Here--

BOX.

Exactly my case--

c.o.x.

To marry--

BOX.

Yes, to espouse--

c.o.x.

Eh?

BOX.

It's the same thing.

c.o.x.

Oh. To marry Penelope Anne.

BOX.

Penelope Anne! So am I!

c.o.x.

You!

BOX.

I.

c.o.x.

Then, Box, I'm sorry for you. You've no chance. Go.

BOX.

On the contrary, c.o.x, as there can't be the smallest possibility of your being accepted, it's for you to retire. _Allez._

c.o.x.

I shan't allez.

BOX.

No more shall I.

c.o.x.

Mr. Box, since we last met, circ.u.mstances have changed. You no longer speak to a gentleman--

BOX.

You needn't explain _that_--

c.o.x.

I say, to a gentleman connected with the Hatting interest. _No_, my family solicitor discovered that my great grandfather had been a Venetian Count, or a Margrave, or a Hargrave, or a something of that sort, and that therefore my proper t.i.tle was Count c.o.x The Landgrave.

BOX.

The _Landgrave_--you might as well be a tombstone at once.

c.o.x.

I am serious. I have come over to mix pleasure with business, and to offer to Penelope Anne the hand of The Landgrave, or of the Venetian Count. So yield to the aristocracy; and, Printer, withdraw.

BOX.

Excuse me, c.o.x, but since our parting I have discovered that in my veins flows the blue blood of the Hidal_gos_--

c.o.x.

How many "goes"?

BOX.