"You can't make a lady come round, as you call it."
"Not make her; no. Of course you can't make a girl. But persuading goes a long way. Why shouldn't she have me? As to all these rows, she ought to feel at any rate that they're her doing. And what she's done it stands to reason she could undo if she would. It only wants a word from her to put me all right with the governor,—and to put me all right with Travers and Treason too. Nobody can love her as I do."
"I do believe that nobody could love her better," said Mr. Dosett, who was beginning to be melted by his nephew's earnestness.
"Oughtn't that to go for something? And then she would have everything that she wishes. She might live anywhere she pleased,—so that I might go to the office every day. She would have her own carriage, you know."
"I don't think that would matter much with Ayala."
"It shows that I'm in a position to ask her," said Tom. "If she could only bring herself not to hate me—"
"There is a difference, Tom, between hating and not loving."
"If she would only begin to make a little way, then I could hope again. Uncle Reginald, could you not tell her that at any rate I would be good to her?"
"I think you would be good to her," he said.
"Indeed, I would. There is nothing I would not do for her. Now will you let me see her just once again, and have one other chance?"