Narvaez grinned wickedly. "For doing a kind action. Surely not."
"I don't see where the kindness comes in, to launch a girl on the London stage and place her in the midst of temptation, when she could be a happy wife in Polwellin."
"You talk like a woman of fifty, my dear Alice. What do you know of temptation, or of life at all? As for Rose being the happy wife of a rude fisherman, that is impossible to one of her beauty and talents. As one old enough to be her great-grandfather surely I am permitted to help her to do something in the world."
"Polwellin is all the world Rose needs," said Alice resolutely; "until you interfered she was quite content to marry Job. Why did you meddle?"
"Ask yourself that question, my dear," retorted Narvaez, coolly adjusting his fur coat. "I was engaged to you——"
"Never! Never! Never!"
"And you threw me over," continued Don Pablo, just as if she had not spoken; "therefore I tried to comfort my heart by doing good. Marry me and I shall leave Rose to become that oaf's wife."
"I shall not marry you."
"So you say, but I think differently. The game is not yet played out."