"What does all this mean?"
"You would ask me, you know. I am bothered out of my life by ever so many things, and now he comes and adds his botheration."
"What bothers you, Gerard? If anything bothers you, surely you will tell me. If there has been anything to trouble you since you saw your father why have you not written and told me? Is your trouble about me?"
"Well, of course it is, in a sort of way."
"I will not be a trouble to you."
"Now you are going to misunderstand me! Of course, you are not a trouble to me. You know that I love you better than anything in the world."
"I hope so."
"Of course I do." Then he put his arm round her waist and pressed her to his bosom. "But what can a man do? When Lady Chiltern recommended that I should go to my father and tell him, I did it. I knew that no good could come of it. He wouldn't lift his hand to do anything for me."
"How horrid that is!"
"He thinks it a shame that I should have my uncle's money, though he never had any more right to it than that man out there. He is always saying that I am better off than he is."