"We are both sorry that we have ever had any absurd engagement between us," said FLORA, with a manner of exquisite softness, "and now, that we are like brother and sister, we need not be all the time playing the Pretty with each other, and needn't be putting on our best things every time we have to meet. You think that my hair always curls in this way, don't you, EDDY?" "Why, you don't mean to say, FLORA, that it's _all_--" "--False? No, you absurd thing! But curling irons, and oil, and crimping pins have to be used hours and hours." "Ha! ha!" laughed EDWIN DROOD, "I see the point; you've had to make-up for me. Now I dare say that you have thought my boots, which I have worn in your company, were the right size for me? They're really one and a half sizes too small, and almost kill me. As for gloves, I never wear any at all except when I come to see you." "And my complexion, dear brother?" "Oh, I know all about that, darling sister. I couldn't find any fault with _that_, so long as my own seal-ring, which you thought so rich-looking, was only plated." The little creature burst into a laugh of delight, and pressed his arm with sisterly enthusiasm. "And we can be perfectly honest with each other; can't we, EDDY? As a partnership for life until death should us part is no longer our object, we have no need to utterly deceive each other in everything." "No," answered the equally happy young man; "as we're not trying to marry now, we may as well drop the swindle." "And just suppose we'd gone on and got married," cried the Flowerpot with dancing eyes. "When it was too late, you'd have found out what I really was--" "And you'd have found _me_ out," interrupted EDWIN, vivaciously. "I should have wanted more expenditure upon myself, for giving me my proper place in society, than you, with your limited means, could have possibly afforded.--" "And I should have told you it would ruin me--" "And that would have made me more disappointed in you than ever, and provoked me to call you a pauper-monster.--" "And then I would have twitted you about being anything but an heiress yourself when I married you--" "--Which would have thrown me into hysterics--" "--Which would have made _me_ lock you up in your room, and leave the house--" "--For which _I_ would have sued you for an Indiana divorce--" "--Thus driving _me_ to commit suicide--" --"And bringing myself under a cruel public prejudice seriously detrimental to my future prospects." Gloriously excited and made nearly breathless by their friendly rivalry in thus specifying what must have been the successive results of their union without plenty of money, the animated pair panted at each other in a kind of imaginative intoxication, and then shook hands almost deliriously. In a moment after, however, Mr. DROOD thrust his hands into his pockets and presented an aspect of sudden discomfiture.