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"I was--thinking merely"

"Then I wish you wouldn't think so suddenly next ti your pardon"

"Nor be so very ening to receive her pen

back again, she recoan to fill

s for tea!"

"Excellent!" said I

"I do wish," she sighed, raising her head to shake it

reproachfully at me, "that you would be a little s a pound is a luxury!"

"Undoubtedly!"

"And to pay two shillings for a luxury e are so poor--is

sinful!"

"Is it, Charmian?"

"Of course it is"

"Oh!" said I; "and yet, life without tea--more especially as you

brew it--would be very stale, flat, and unprofitable, and--"

"Bacon and eggs--one shilling and fourpence!" she went on,

consulting her accounts

"Ah!" said I, not venturing on "good," this ti!"

"Hu this over