I
don't see why it should not be as good a Christian name as
Willoughby or Howard."
"Quite as good, and much more distinctive. There can't be another
Mounser Green in the world."
"And very few other young men like him. At my time of life I find
it very hard his going away. And what will he do in such a place as
that,--all alone and without a wife?"
"Why don't you make him take a wife?"
"There isn't time now. He'll have to start in May."
"Plenty of time. Trousseaus are now got up by steam, and girls are
kept ready to marry at the shortest notice. If I were you I should
certainly advise him to take out some healthy young woman, capable
of bearing the inclemencies of the Patagonian climate."
"As for that the climate is delicious," said Mrs. Green, who
certainly was not led by her guest's manner to suspect the nature
of her guest's more recent intentions.
Mounser Green on this afternoon came to Portugal Street before he
himself went out to dinner, choosing the hour at which his aunt was
wont to adorn herself. "And so you are to be the hero of
Patagonia?" said Arabella as she put out her hand to congratulate
him on his appointment.
"I don't know about heroism, but it seems that I am to go there,"
said Mounser with much melancholy in his voice.
"I should have thought you were the last man to leave London
willingly.
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