The Pleasant Surprise
"But I was. I suppose I ought to know if any man does. However, Eliza, if you want a new hat, anything up to half a sovereign, you've only to say it."
She said it, thanked me, and asked me to come and help her water the spiraea.
"It's such a shapely spiraea," she said.
"Yes," I answered sadly, "it's a regular plant." And so it was, though I had not been intending what the French call a double entendre at the time.
121
