--"Not choose," quoth my father, (repeating my uncle _Toby's_ words) "to let a man come so near her!" ----By Heaven, brother _Toby!_ you would try the patience of _Job_; --and I think I have the plagues of one already without it. ----Why? ----Where? ----Wherein? ----Wherefore? ----Upon what account? replied my uncle _Toby_, in the utmost astonishment. --To think, said my father, of a man living to your age, brother, and knowing so little about women! ----I know nothing at all about them, --replied my uncle _Toby_: And I think, continued he, that the shock I received the year after the demolition of _Dunkirk_, in my affair with widow _Wadman_; --which shock you know I should not have received, but from my total ignorance of the sex, --has given me just cause to say, That I neither know nor do pretend to know anything about 'em or their concerns either. 
'Not choose,' quoth he, (repeating my uncle Toby's words) 'to let a man come so near her! - By Heaven, brother Toby! you would try the patience of Job.'
'Why?' replied my uncle in astonishment.
'To think,' said my father, 'of a man living to your age, and knowing so little about women!'
'I know nothing at all about them,' replied my uncle Toby. 'And I think that the shock I received the year after the demolition of Dunkirk, in my affair with widow Wadman - which shock you know was caused by my total ignorance of the sex - makes me say, that I do not pretend to know anything about 'em or their concerns.'
