‘My goodness, Tom!’ his sister interposed. ‘You ought to fall in love immediately.’
Tom put this observation off good humouredly, but somewhat gravely too; and they were soon very chatty again on some other subject.
As they were passing through a street in the City, not very far from Mrs Todgers’s place of residence, Ruth checked Tom before the window of a large Upholstery and Furniture Warehouse, to call his attention to something very magnificent and ingenious, displayed there to the best advantage, for the admiration and temptation of the public. Tom had hazarded some most erroneous and extravagantly wrong guess in relation to the price of this article, and had joined his sister in laughing heartily at his mistake, when he pressed her arm in his, and pointed to two persons at a little distance, who were looking in at the same window with a deep interest in the chests of drawers and tables.
[Original]
‘Hush!’ Tom whispered. ‘Miss Pecksniff, and the young gentleman to whom she is going to be married.’
‘Why does he look as if he was going to be buried, Tom?’ inquired his little sister.
‘Why, he is naturally a dismal young gentleman, I believe,’ said Tom ‘but he is very civil and inoffensive.’
‘I suppose they are furnishing their house,’ whispered Ruth.
‘Yes, I suppose they are,’ replied Tom. ‘We had better avoid speaking to them.’