“It has gone on a long time, Vick, hasn’t it?”
“A great deal too long,” was the reply, spoken with decision. “You know it is perfectly hopeless. You can’t afford me; I have told you so over and over again. Why on earth don’t you go and invest yourself in a pork-butcher’s daughter from Chicago, like everybody else?”
She turned on him with some fierceness as she put the question. The captain looked up at her reproachfully as he exclaimed:
“What a hateful girl you are to talk like that! You know perfectly well that you love me.”
“Don’t be vulgar, Gerald!” was the sharp rebuke. “What has that to do with the question? You know I am for sale, just like the Zulu women. I don’t know exactly how many cows I am worth, but I know I am one of the most expensive girls in London.”
Captain Mauleverer pulled his mustache, gazing at her with ill-concealed admiration.
“Well, anyway, that is no reason why I shouldn’t look in at the shop-window,” he retorted, cheerfully.
It was at this moment that the machine despatched by the marchioness entered the room to summon Victoria to her mother’s presence.
“Is there any one with the marchioness?” she inquired.
The machine believed that Mr. Despencer was with her ladyship.