'Now, be a good-tempered Eddy, and pretend. And so you are
engaged?'
'And so I am engaged.'
'Is she nice?'
'Charming.'
'Tall?'
'Immensely tall!' Rosa being short.
'Must be gawky, I should think,' is Rosa's quiet commentary.
'I beg your pardon; not at all,' contradiction rising in him.
'What is termed a fine woman; a splendid woman.'
'Big nose, no doubt,' is the quiet commentary again.
'Not a little one, certainly,' is the quick reply, (Rosa's being a
little one.)
'Long pale nose, with a red knob in the middle. I know the sort of
nose,' says Rosa, with a satisfied nod, and tranquilly enjoying the
Lumps.
'You DON'T know the sort of nose, Rosa,' with some warmth; 'because
it's nothing of the kind.'
'Not a pale nose, Eddy?'
'No.' Determined not to assent.
'A red nose? O! I don't like red noses. However; to be sure she
can always powder it.'
'She would scorn to powder it,' says Edwin, becoming heated.
'Would she? What a stupid thing she must be! Is she stupid in
everything?'
'No; in nothing.'
After a pause, in which the whimsically wicked face has not been
unobservant of him, Rosa says:
'And this most sensible of creatures likes the idea of being
carried off to Egypt; does she, Eddy?'
'Yes. She takes a sensible interest in triumphs of engineering
skill: especially when they are to change the whole condition of
an undeveloped country.
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