His hand rested for a moment upon hers. She drew it at once away. "No, I think not!" she answered.
"I have not had much experience," he went on, "in being engaged, but it seemed to me that there were certain privileges which belonged to that state."
"You are perfectly well aware," she answered, "that ours is not an engagement of that sort. You know something about the world in which the men marry for position and the women for money, don't you? You can look upon our engagement as being of that order. I marry you because it is the only way I can make you pay your debt. I have given you notice from the first. I mean to gain everything I can, and to give nothing."
"Nothing?" he repeated.
"As little as possible," she answered. "As a matter of fact, you are singularly indifferent to me. You simply represent the things I desire, the things which are owing to me, the things which were owing to—to him. I marry you to acquire them. You marry me because you must."
"Well," he said, "ours promises to be a novel matrimonial experience."
"Not at all," she answered.
"You have been reading too many novels," he declared. "People really don't marry in this sort of way at all. There is always a pretence of sentiment about it. If not, for very shame's sake, they try to cultivate it."
"Then we," she answered, "will remain exceptions."
"Do you dislike me?" he asked.