“I mean it,” she added gravely. “I can get five thousand pounds of my fortune from papa, but I want twenty thousand more.”
“But what a strange use for it; you are not in earnest about that!”
“Oh, yes, but I am.”
“Well, if anybody were to offer you twenty thousand pounds, what would you say to—him?”
“I should say, Thank you.”
“Prettily?”
Ella paused. He was bending his head to look into her eyes, and putting into that word a great deal of impertinent meaning. Then she flashed up into his face a grand glance full of magnificent haughtiness.
“Of course, because I am not handsome, you think I ought to jump at you!”
“Oh, no, I don’t. But whether you jump at me or away from me, you shall have the twenty thousand pounds.”
“What, without knowing what I am going to do with it?”