“Oh, I apologize for my vulgar manners,” laughed Olivia, who was already rather ashamed of her outbreak. “I’m only a farmer’s daughter, you know.”
“Yes, and you couldn’t give yourself more airs if you were a duchess. Your father isn’t so proud by a long way, I can tell you,” he added with meaning.
Olivia became in an instant very quiet.
“What do you mean?” she asked sternly.
“Oh, nothing but that he’s been in the habit of borrowing money of me for some time; only trifling sums, but still they seemed to come in handy, judging by the way he thanked me.”
He was disappointed to see that Olivia took this information without any of the tragic airs he had expected.
“I daresay they did,” said she. “We are not too well off, as everybody knows.”
The simplicity with which she uttered these words made the young man feel at last rather ashamed of himself.
“Of course, I know he’ll pay me back,” he said hastily.
Olivia opened great proud eyes, full of astonishment and disdain, and said, superbly, “Of course he will.”