“Man!” Diana was unconscious of the plagiarism. “Be careful!”
He shook his head.
“I tell you——”
“You shall marry her!”
“I—I can’t—I won’t.... I’ll see you all to the devil.”
Heloise cowered under the stroke of fate.
“You promised me, Dan! You promised me! You’re not going back on your word? Dan, say it ain’t true—it’s not true, Dan?”
It was terrible, thought Diana, her heart broken by the woman’s woe.
“You don’t mean it, Dan, do you? It’s only your joking way?” Gordon showed his teeth in a fiendish grimace. “Ah, I can see you smiling. I can see the li’l twinkle in your eye! We’ll quit this business like this pretty young lady says an’ shake the whole outfit, won’t we, Dan? And I’ll be just your li’l wife sittin’ on the back porch, whilst you’re mixin’ the hen-feed in the garden.”
“Damn the hen-feed!” he yelled. “Curse you and your back porch! I won’t marry you. Diana, can’t you see that she’s a fake? She’s acting! I’m nothing to her!”