"But he can't starve."
"He must either starve, or earn a living, or go back to his father and—give up."
"Does that mean that you won't marry him unless he has money of his own?"
"It means what I've said more than once before—that I can't marry him if he has no money of his own, unless his family come and ask me to do it."
There was a little furrow between her brows.
"Oh, well, they won't do that. I would," she hastened to add, "because—" she smiled, like an angel—"because I believe in love; but they wouldn't."
"I think Mrs. Rossiter would," I argued, "if she was left free."
"She might; and, of course, there's Mildred. She'd do anything for Hugh, though she thinks . . . but neither Jack nor Pauline would give in; and as for Mr. Brokenshire—I believe it would break his heart."
"Why should he feel toward me like that?" I demanded, bitterly. "How am I inferior to Pauline Gray, except that I have no money?"
"Well, I suppose in a way that's it. It's what Mr. Brokenshire calls the solidarity of aristocracies. They have to hold together."