human
Talking of Violet, Chris, did it never occur to you that she had flung her net over poor Renshaw?
gpt
Flung her net--Renshaw! No, by Jove, it never did! Why, he's the most sober-going old chap in the world. Confound it, he must be past that sort of thing--if he ever went in for it. Why, he's only two or three years my junior.
human
And what if he is? was the reply of calm superiority.
gpt
He needn't be Methuselah for all that. And then remember the hard, struggling, solitary life his has been. He's just the man to fall over head and ears in love at middle age.
human
Pho! Not he! What matchmakers women are. Bryant and May are nothing to them. But, I say, Hilda, supposing it is as you say, why shouldn't he go in and win, eh?
gpt
Do you think Violet is the sort of girl to go and end her days in a wattle-and-daub shanty away in the wilds of Bushmanland? Come now. Do you think for a moment she's that sort?
human
N-o. Perhaps not. But there's no reason why she should. Renshaw might find some farm to suit him somewhere else--down here, for instance. I don't see why it shouldn't be done. He's a fellow who thoroughly understands things, and would get along first-rate at whatever he turned to. If he's come into low water up there it's more the fault of that infernal country than his own, I'll bet fifty pounds. No, I don't at all see why he shouldn't go in and win, and, by Jove, he shall.
gpt
Who's the matchmaker now? retorted his wife with a smile of conscious superiority.
human
But there are several things to be got over. First of all, I believe he must be in very low water; in fact, pretty well at the end of his tether. That drought can't have left him much to the good. And I am tolerably certain Violet has nothing--at least, nothing to speak of.
gpt
Well, that might be got over--living's cheap enough,--and here we never get any downright bad seasons.
human
Then there's the difference in their creeds.
gpt
Pho! That doesn't count for much in these parts, where there's precious little opportunity of running any creed in particular.
human
No, unfortunately; but there ought to be, replied Woman, the born devotee.
gpt
But the most fatal obstacle of all you seem to overlook. It usually takes two to make a bargain.
human
What! Do you mean to say she wouldn't have him? Well, that's another story, of course. But Renshaw's an uncommonly fine follow all round-- and she might do worse.
gpt
That I won't attempt to deny. But I'm afraid the impression left upon my mind is that she doesn't care twopence about him.
human
Only making a fool of him, eh?
gpt
I won't say that. Violet is a girl who has been accustomed to a great deal of admiration, and has an extremely fascinating manner. It is quite possible that poor Renshaw may have walked into the trap with his eyes open.
human
Not he. He isn't such an ass. She must have been trying to make a fool of him, growled Selwood, with whom Violet Avory was, nevertheless, a prime favourite.
gpt
Just like you women! You're all alike, every one of you.