[_He picks up a handful of them and shows them to ROSE. With heartfelt conviction:_] Rosie, I wish you were my wife!

ROSE

Goodness, Mr. Flamm!

FLAMM

I do, so help me!

ROSE

[_Nervously trying to restrain him_] Oh no, no!

FLAMM

Rosie, give me your dear, good, faithful little paw. [_He holds her hand and sits down._] By heaven, Rosie! Look here, I'm a deucedly queer fellow! I'm d.a.m.ned fond of my dear old woman; that's as true as ...

ROSE

[_Hiding her face in her arm._] You make me want to die o' shame.

FLAMM

d.a.m.ned fond of her I tell you ... but--[_His patience snaps._]--this doesn't concern her a bit!

ROSE

[_Again tempted to laugh against her will._] Oh, but how you talk, Mr.

Flamm!

FLAMM

[_Filled with hearty admiration of her._] Oh, you're a lovely woman! You are lovely! You see: my wife and I ... that's a queer bit of business, that is. Not the kind of thing that can be straightened out in a minute.

You know Henrietta ... She's sick. Nine solid years she's been bedridden; at most she creeps around in a wheel chair.--Confound it all, what good is that sort o' thing to me?

[_He grasps her head and kisses her pa.s.sionately._

ROSE

[_Frightened under his kisses._] The people are comin' from church!

FLAMM

They're not thinking of it! Why are you so worried about the people in church to-day?

ROSE

Because August's in church too.

FLAMM

That long-faced gentry is always in church! Where else should they be?

But, Rosie, it isn't even half past ten yet; and when the service is over the bells ring. No, and you needn't be worried about my wife either.

ROSE

Oh, Christopher, she keeps lookin' at a body sometimes, so you want to die o' shame.

FLAMM

You don't know my old lady; that's it. She's bright; she can look through three board walls! But on that account ...! She's mild and good as a lamb ... even if she knew what there is between us; she wouldn't take our heads off.

ROSE

Oh, no! For heaven's sake, Mr. Flamm!

FLAMM

Nonsense, Rosie! Have a pinch, eh? [_He takes snuff._] I tell you once more: I don't care about anything! [_Indignantly._] What is a man like me to do? What, I ask you? No, don't misunderstand me! Surely you know how seriously I think of our affair. Let me talk ahead once in a while.

ROSE

Mr. Christie, you're so good to me ...! [_With a sudden ebullition of tenderness, tears in her eyes, she kisses FLAMM'S hand._] So good ... but ...

FLAMM

[_Moved and surprised._] Good to you? No wonder! Deuce take me, Rosie.

That's very little, being good to you. If I were free, I'd marry you. You see, I've lost the ordinary way in life! Not to speak of past affairs!

I'm fit for ... well, I wonder what I _am_ fit for! I might have been a royal chief forester to-day! And yet, when the governor died, I went straight home and threw over my career. I wasn't born for the higher functions of society. All this even is too civilised for me. A block house, a rifle, bear's ham for supper and a load of lead sent into the breeches of the first comer--that would be ...!

ROSE

But that can't be had, Mr. Flamm! And ... things has got to end sometime.

FLAMM

[_Half to himself._] Confound it all to everlasting perdition! Isn't there time enough left for that spindle-shanked hypocrite? Won't there be far too much left for that fellow anyway? No> girlie, I'd send him about his business.

ROSE

Oh, but I've kept him danglin' long enough. Two years an' more he's been waitin'. Now he's urgent; he won't wait any longer. An' things can't go on this way no more.

FLAMM

[_Enraged._] That's all nonsense; you understand. First you worked yourself to the bone for your father. You haven't the slightest notion of what life is, and now you want to be that bookbinder's pack horse. I don't see how people can be so vulgar and heartless as to make capital out of another human being in that way! If that's all you're looking forward to, surely there's time enough.

ROSE

No, Christie ... It's easy to talk that way, Mr. Flamm! But if you was put into such circ.u.mstances, you'd be thinkin' different too.--I know how shaky father's gettin'! An' the landlord has given us notice too. A new tenant is to move in, I believe! An' then it's father's dearest wish that everythin's straightened out.