‘You’ve changed your mind rapidly, Lord Wheatley,’ said he.
‘I know nothing,’ I rejoined, ‘that does change a man’s mind so quickly as a pretty girl.’
‘Yet some men hold to their promises,’ said he with a savage sneer.
‘Oh, a few, perhaps; very few in these days.’
‘And you don’t aspire to be one?’
‘Oh, I aspired,’ said I with a laugh; ‘but my aspirations have not stood out against Phroso’s charms.’
Then I took a step nearer to him, and, veiling impertinence under a thin show of sympathy, I said:
‘I hope you’re not really annoyed? You weren’t serious in the hint you gave of your own intentions? I thought you were only joking, you know. If you were serious, believe me I am grieved. But it must be every man for himself in these little matters, mustn’t it?’
He had borne as much as he could. He rose suddenly to his feet and an oath escaped from between his teeth.
‘You sha’n’t have her!’ said he. ‘You think you can laugh at me: men who think that find out their mistake.’