"Oh, don't call it marriage. It is a business arrangement." Anstice spoke hotly.
She was furious with her cousin for letting her in for such an interview as this. She was humiliated, and indignant at having such a proposal made to her.
"I had better decline your kind offer at once," she said, and her tone was biting. "We need not prolong the interview, need we?"
"I am sorry if I have offended you by my proposition. I should not have spoken to you, but your cousin gave me to understand that you are one of these modern women who prefer to be independent and live a single life. It's what I prefer myself, and she said you were a passionate child-lover. You would be absolutely free and unfettered. You would have been willing to come to me as a lady housekeeper or governess. Am I not offering you a better position than either of those?"
He spoke very quietly, almost despondently.
Something in his tone made Anstice feel ashamed of her momentary exhibition of temper. She was very sweet tempered as a rule. Now her voice softened.
"I don't wish to be discourteous. It has been a misunderstanding on my part. I dare say you may get other more suitable women than myself, to fall in with your proposal."
She rose from her seat and left the room. Then, when she had found Lady Lucy, she expressed her feelings. Lady Lucy at first looked quite frightened, then set her lips, and began to remonstrate.
"You are a foolish, silly girl! Here are you without a penny-piece to your name, obliged to go out into the world and scrape and save enough to keep body and soul together. It's a life of drudgery and toil, and you are utterly unfit for it. You've always told me you don't care for men. I have known you refuse three of them. Here is an ideal home offered to you, wealth and comfort and an assured position, and no man to worry you. Justin will always roam the world, I am afraid. Because your pride is touched, and he doesn't want you for yourself, only for what you can give his home and children, you consider yourself insulted and injured. I consider Justin is offering you a great deal. You have always posed as one who wants to help her fellow-creatures. Here is a chance to benefit these poor neglected children. I suppose the real fact is that you are hoping for marriage with some one else. Have you anyone in your mind?"
This was turning the tables upon her with a vengeance indeed! The blood rushed to her cheeks, and then she laughed.