'Never!' was the valorous reply. 'Oh, Rachael!' He seized her passive

hand, and the watering-pot fell to the ground as he pressed it to his

lips. - 'Oh, Rachael! say you love me.'

'Mr Tupman,' said the spinster aunt, with averted head, 'I can hardly

speak the words; but - but - you are not wholly indifferent to me.'

Mr Tupman no sooner heard this avowal, than he proceeded to do

what his enthusiastic emotions prompted, and what, for aught we

know (for we are but little acquainted with such matters), people so

circumstanced always do. He jumped up, and, throwing his arm

round the neck of the spinster aunt, imprinted upon her lips

numerous kisses, which after a due show of struggling and resistance,

she received so passively, that there is no telling how many more Mr

Tupman might have bestowed, if the lady had not given a very

unaffected start, and exclaimed in an affrighted tone -

Mr Tupman, we are observed! - we are discovered!'

Mr Tupman looked round. There was the fat boy, perfectly motionless,

with his large circular eyes staring into the arbour, but without the

slightest expression on his face that the most expert physiognomist

could have referred to astonishment, curiosity, or any other known

passion that agitates the human breast. Mr Tupman gazed on the fat

boy, and the fat boy stared at him; and the longer Mr Tupman

observed the utter vacancy of the fat boy's countenance, the more

convinced he became that he either did not know, or did not

understand, anything that had been going forward. Under this

impression, he said with great firmness -

What do you want here, Sir?'

Supper's ready, sir,' was the prompt reply.

Have you just come here, sir?' inquired Mr Tupman, with a piercing

look.

Just,' replied the fat boy.

Mr Tupman looked at him very hard again; but there was not a wink

in his eye, or a curve in his face.

Mr Tupman took the arm of the spinster aunt, and walked towards

the house; the fat boy followed behind.

He knows nothing of what has happened,'he whispered.

Nothing,' said the spinster aunt.

The Pickwick Papers