"This is the way that men deceive women," she said--"promising one thing and doing another!"
Had she been a scholar, she might have flung at him the proverb, "False in one thing, false in all," but she was only a woman in love. Besides, she would have known that there would have been no truth in the proverb, in this case. Perhaps that would not have mattered, though. Women are queer logicians; their logic comes from the heart, not from the head.
"What can I do?" he asked, after listening to her reproaches. "You don't want people to think me a coward, do you?"
"If they dared to say so!" she exclaimed, with a motion which implied that she would defend him.
"They will say so if I do as you wish," he said; her hand was in his now: he did not mind the workmen seeing. "No, no, Margaret. Your word shall be law in everything but this, Women don't understand these matters." She tossed her head disdainfully. "Besides, don't I want to get rich for my Margaret's sake?"
"Rich!" she exclaimed. "Why, you have thousands of pounds!"
"I want thousands more to throw into your lap."
She wavered a little, for just three seconds.
"No," she said then. "You don't want thousands more, if your life is to be risked in the getting of them, Philip," and she looked at him earnestly, "if you were a beggar, I should not care."
"Do you mean to say you would love me all the same?"