Hanged if I won't
marry and be respectable--marriage is an honourable state!' And thereupon
Tom grows a couple of inches taller in his own conceit.
Though Mr. Sponge's thoughts did not travel in quite such a luxurious
first-class train as the foregoing, he, Mr. Sponge, being more of a
two-shirts-and-a-dicky sort of man, yet still the future ways and means
weighed upon his mind, and calmed the transports of his present joy. Lucy
was an angel! about that there was no dispute. He would make her Mrs.
Sponge at all events. Touring about was very expensive. He could only
counterbalance the extravagance of inns by the rigid rule of giving nothing
to servants at private houses. He thought a nice airy lodging in the
suburbs of London would answer every purpose, while his accurate knowledge
of cab-fares would enable Lucy to continue her engagement at the Royal
Amphitheatre without incurring the serious overcharges the inexperienced
are exposed to. 'Where one can dine, two can dine,' mused Mr. Sponge; 'and
I make no doubt we'll manage matters somehow.
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