"Oh no, I'm not, Hugh, daring," I pleaded on my own behalf. "I may seem like that on the outside, because—oh, because I've such a lot to think of, and I have to think for us two. That's why I'm asking you if you found Libby Jaynes like me."
He looked puzzled. "She's—she's decent." he said, as if not knowing what else to say.
"Yes, of course; but I mean—does she strike you as having had my kind of ways? Or my kind of antecedents?"
"Oh, antecedents! Why talk about them?"
"It's what you've been doing, isn't it, for the past half-hour?"
"Oh, mine, yes; because I want you to see that I've got a big asset in Cousin Andrew Brew. I know he'll do anything for me, and if you'll trust me, Alix—"
"I do trust you, Hugh, and as soon as you have anything like what would make you independent, and justified in braving your family's disapproval—"
He took an apologetic tone. "I said just now that we couldn't scrape along on less than twelve thousand a year—"
To me the sum seemed ridiculously enormous. "Oh, I'm sure we could."
"Well, that's what I've been thinking," he said, wistfully. "That figure was based on having the Brokenshire position to keep up. But if we were to live in Boston, where less would be expected of us, we could manage, I should think, on ten."