Tasker, brokenly. "I never dreamt o' such a thing. I was
going 'er way one night--about three weeks ago, it was--and I walked with
her as far as her road-Mint Street. Somehow it got put about that we
were walking out. A week afterwards she saw me in Harris's, the
grocer's, and waited outside for me till I come out and walked 'ome with
me. After she came in the other night I found we was keeping company.
To-night-tonight she got a ring out o' me, and now we're engaged."
"What on earth did you give her the ring for if you don't want her?"
inquired the captain, eyeing him with genuine concern.
"Ah, it seems easy, sir," said the unfortunate; "but you don't know
Selina. She bought the ring and said I was to pay it off a shilling a
week. She took the first shilling to-night."
His master sat back and regarded him in amazement.
"You don't know Selina, sir," repeated Mr. Tasker, in reply to this
manifestation. "She always gets her own way. Her father ain't 'it 'er
mother not since Selina was seventeen. He dursent. The last time Selina
went for him tooth and nail; smashed all the plates off the dresser
throwing 'em at him, and ended by chasing of him up the road in his
shirt-sleeves.
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