“Well, that is a joke,” was the lawyer’s reply.  And he rubbed his hands appreciatively.  “Who is the fellow?  What’s his name?”

“BLINKSOP,” said ANN, “ARCHIBALD.  Oh, won’t there be a row,” she chuckled.  “He’s engaged to my cousin BELINDA, you see.”

At this juncture TEDDY entered with the oysters and sherry.

“Come,” said ANN to the lawyer, “sit up here and have something to eat, and I’ll tell you all about it.  TEDDY,” she continued facetiously, “will you ask a blessing?”

TEDDY closed his eyes reverentially.

“For what I’m going to resayve out of this,” said he, “may I be truly thankful, and, oh Lord!  I wish ’twas more.”  And he went out with a solemn air.

“Did I understand you to say,” inquired the lawyer, after he had animated his diaphragm with two glasses of sherry, “that this BLINKSOP is engaged to your cousin?”

“Yes,” replied ANN, struggling with a very large oyster.  “I call her cousin, but there’s no blood-relation.”

“When did the engagement take place?” he inquired, hoisting another glass of sherry.

“Only yesterday; but it’s pretty well known that she’s been soft on him for a good while.”

“Has the engagement been formally announced?” said he, holding the now empty bottle upside down, and squeezing it vigorously.  “Let me fill your glass,” he continued, holding the bottle to the light and examining it critically, with one eye closed.

“No, I thank you, I’ve got enough.  Yes,” she went on, “the engagement was known far and wide in less than two hours.  There was a croquet party at the house yesterday, and BELINDA told ’em all.  Why?”

“Because,” replied the lawyer, setting his glass upside down, and rolling the empty bottle along the floor, with a dejected air, “because it may affect this marriage of yours.”

“What, my marriage with BLINKSOP?”

“Yes.”

“In what way?”

“It may test its legality,” was the answer.  “Mind, I don’t say your marriage is not valid; but, in this State, if a couple solemnly engage themselves, they are, to all intents and purposes, legally married.  In New England it is even more rigid.  There, I understand, if a young man goes home with a young lady on a Sunday evening, it is considered as good as an engagement; and if, on the next Sunday evening, he goes home with another young lady, he is looked upon as a fickle-minded miscreant, capable of ruining a whole town.  Little children avoid him, and even dogs go round the corner at his approach.  Now, if this BLINKSOP chooses to contest this, marriage, I think—­mind you, I only think—­that with this previous engagement to back his unwillingness to marry you, this marriage will go for nothing.”

Having delivered this legal opinion with an air of profound wisdom, and the most acute penetration, he leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and regarded his empty glass as with the air of a man whose fondest hopes in that direction had been ruthlessly crushed.  And ANN was walking the floor thoroughly excited.