“Oh, I don’t know. To get rid of me, I suppose!”
“I can’t understand you,” broke out Bayre, almost passionately. “You seem a girl of spirit, of resource, yet you can calmly submit to be disposed of, by a guardian who doesn’t care for you, to a man whom you don’t care for—”
“How do you know that?”
She turned upon him with a pretty flash of defiance.
But he waved aside the suggested protest.
“As if you could!” said he, not guessing how absurdly eager and anxious he was showing himself in this business which was none of his.
Miss Eden twisted her pretty mouth into a little grimace.
“He’s not exactly the ideal of one’s dreams, perhaps!” she said under her breath.
Whereat Bayre, grown bolder, laughed outright.
“You won’t do it?” he said, becoming suddenly grave.