[_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 circumstances, 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. FLAMM Then let your father marry August Keil, if he's so crazy about the fellow. Why, he's positively obsessed. It's madness the way he's taken with that man! ROSE You're unjust, Mr. Flamm; that's all. FLAMM Say rather ... Well, what? What was I going to say?... I can't bear that sanctimonious phiz! My gorge rises at the sight of him. God forgive me, Rosie, and forgive you especially! Why shouldn't I be open with you? It may be that he has his merits. They say, too, that he's saved up a few shillings. But that's no reason why you should go and drown yourself in his paste-pot! ROSE No, Christopher! Don't talk that way! I musn't listen to such talk, the dear Lord knows!--August, he's been through a lot!--His sickness an' his misfortunes--that goes right to a person's soul ... FLAMM