"You needn't flirt with her."
"Oh, needn't I? That's all you know about it."
The Governor was not offended by this rudeness.
"Then," he said, "if you don't mean to go on——"
"Who said I didn't?"
"Do you?"
Dick was driven into a corner. He asked why life was so ill-arranged, why he was poor, why a man might not look at a girl without proposing to her, why everybody was always so down on him, why people chattered so maliciously, why he was such a miserable devil, and many other questions. His brother relentlessly repeated his "Do you?" and at last Dick, red in the face, and with every sign of wholesome shame, blurted out,
"How can I marry her? You know I can't—especially after this story of Kilshaw's."
"Very well. Then if you can't marry her, and yet can't help making love to her——"
"I didn't say I made love to her."