'Father,' said Joe, presenting Dolly. 'You know who this is?'
Mr Willet looked first at her, then at his son, then back again at
Dolly, and then made an ineffectual effort to extract a whiff from his
pipe, which had gone out long ago.
'Say a word, father, if it's only "how d'ye do,"' urged Joe.
'Certainly, Joseph,' answered Mr Willet. 'Oh yes! Why not?'
'To be sure,' said Joe. 'Why not?'
'Ah!' replied his father. 'Why not?' and with this remark, which he
uttered in a low voice as though he were discussing some grave question
with himself, he used the little finger--if any of his fingers can
be said to have come under that denomination--of his right hand as a
tobacco-stopper, and was silent again.
And so he sat for half an hour at least, although Dolly, in the most
endearing of manners, hoped, a dozen times, that he was not angry with
her. So he sat for half an hour, quite motionless, and looking all
the while like nothing so much as a great Dutch Pin or Skittle. At the
expiration of that period, he suddenly, and without the least notice,
burst (to the great consternation of the young people) into a very loud
and very short laugh; and repeating, 'Certainly, Joseph.
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