ckpocket, just because I use a few tasty little posters which
sell my goods, and all the while you're trying on the sly to take a poor
old man's daughter away from him. Well, Mr. Hippanthigh?

HIPPANTHIGH: I--I never looked at it in that light before, Mr. Sladder.
I never thought of it in that way. You have made me feel ashamed (_he
lowers his head_), ashamed.

SLADDER: Aha! Aha! I thought I would. Now you know what it's like when
you make people ashamed of themselves. You don't like it when they do it
to you. Aha! (SLADDER _is immensely pleased with himself._)

HIPPANTHIGH: Mr. Sladder, I spoke to you as my conscience demanded, and
you have shown me that I have done wrong in not speaking sooner about
our engagement. I would have spoken to you, but I could not say that and
the other thing in the same day. I meant to tell you soon;--well, I
didn't, and I know it looks bad. I've done wrong and I admit it.

SLADDER: Aha! (_Still hugely pleased._)

HIPPANTHIGH: But, Mr. Sladder, you would not on that account perhaps
spoil your daughter's happiness, and take a terrible revenge on me. You
would not withhold your consent to our----

SLADDER: Wait a moment; we're coming to that. There's some bad animal
that I've heard of that lives in France, and when folks attack it it
defends itself. I've just been defending myself. I think I've shown you
that you're no brand-new extra-gilt angel on the top of a spire.

HIPPANTHIGH: O--I--er--never----

SLADDER: Quite so. Well, now we come on to the other part. Very well.
Those lords and people, they marry one another's daughters, because they
know they're all no good. They're afraid it will get out like, and
spread some of their damned mediaeval ideas where they'll do harm. So
they keep it in the family like. But we people who have had the sense to
look after ourselves, we don't throw our daughters away to any young man
that can't look after himself. See?

HIPPANTHIGH: I assure you, Mr. Sladder, I should--er----

SLADDER: She's my only daughter, and if any of my grandchildren are
going to the work-house, they'll go to one where the master's salary is
high, and they'll go there as master.

HIPPANTHIGH: I am aware, Mr. Sladder, that I have very little money; as
you would look at it, very little.

SLADDER: It isn't the amount of money you've got as matters. The
question is this: are you a young man as money is any good to? If I died
and left you a million, would you know what to do