1 "My poor dear Handel," Herbert repeated.
2 But you can't help groaning, my dear Handel.
3 Patience, my dear Handel: time enough, time enough.
4 Anyhow, my dear Handel," said he presently, "soldiering won't do.
5 I was going to say a word or two, Handel, concerning my father and my father's son.
6 Gravely, Handel, for the subject is grave enough, you know how it is as well as I do.
7 But yours cannot be dismissed; indeed, my dear dear Handel, it must not be dismissed.
8 All is well, Handel," said Herbert, "and he is quite satisfied, though eager to see you.
9 Lucky for you then, Handel," said Herbert, "that you are picked out for her and allotted to her.
10 We are both good watermen, Handel, and could take him down the river ourselves when the right time comes.
11 "And now, Handel," said he, finally throwing off the story as it were, "there is a perfectly open understanding between us."
12 My good Handel, is it not obvious that with Newgate in the next street, there must be far greater hazard in your breaking your mind to him and making him reckless, here, than elsewhere.
13 Now, Handel," Herbert replied, in his gay, hopeful way, "it seems to me that in the despondency of the tender passion, we are looking into our gift-horse's mouth with a magnifying-glass.
14 Yes; but my dear Handel," Herbert went on, as if we had been talking, instead of silent, "its having been so strongly rooted in the breast of a boy whom nature and circumstances made so romantic, renders it very serious.
15 There was something charmingly cordial and engaging in the manner in which after saying "Now, Handel," as if it were the grave beginning of a portentous business exordium, he had suddenly given up that tone, stretched out his honest hand, and spoken like a schoolboy.