Georgette Heyer

[Bruin Fisher]

I'm reading The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer. Our hero is a very large ex-military man from the North of England, who travels south when he learns he is heir to an estate near the South coast. He is made very unwelcome by his relatives there, who had hoped that they would be the beneficiaries, not him. His grandfather, the current family head, wants him to marry his cousin, and he's just made a rather half-hearted attempt at paying suit to her and she's made it very clear she's not interested. It's what he says next that nearly made me spit out my breakfast:

"Come now, love, never say that!" he responded in heartening accents. "To be sure, there's a lot of me to swallow, but you're too game to be beaten on any suit."

Can Georgette Heyer really have been unaware of the meaning of her words, do you think?

[Cole Parker]

That was really a mouthful.