“Perhaps you went about it in the wrong way. You may have been harsh when you should have been gentle,” she ventured.
“I tried hard to control myself and reason with her, and I didn’t actually lose my temper until she intimated that you didn’t care about me—it was only my money.”
“How dared she say that?” Geraldine sat up indignantly. “What have I ever done that has given her the right to consider me mercenary?”
“It was in answer to a proposition of mine.”
“What was it?” She leaned toward him anxiously.
“I tried to—to bribe her,” he confessed, somewhat shamefully. “I offered to settle a—a very large amount upon her, if she would consent to free me. She jumped up excitedly and asked me what you had to say to that.”
“Yes—yes—and——?”
“I told her I hadn’t even discussed it with you, and then she said I should go to you and tell you what I proposed doing, and I should soon see whether or not your devotion remained the same.”
“So that is her opinion of me?” Geraldine DeLacy’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Well, you can tell her from me—that I’d marry you to-morrow, Hugh Benton, if you hadn’t a dollar in the world!”
“My own darling!” he exclaimed, as his arms went out and he held her close to him. “I knew it—I knew it.”