“Now here's where I'm up against it,” he went on. “I don't want to be too fresh or to butt in, but—didn't old Temple Barholm leave you ANY money?”
“Oh, no!” she exclaimed. “Dear me! no! I couldn't possibly EXPECT such a thing.”
He gazed at her as though considering the situation. “Couldn't you?” he said.
There was an odd reflection in his eyes, and he seemed to consider her and the situation again.
“Well,” he began after his pause, “what I want to know is what you expect ME to do.”
There was no unkindness in his manner, in fact, quite the contrary, even when he uttered what seemed to Miss Alicia these awful, unwarranted words. As though she had forced herself into his presence to make demands upon his charity! They made her tremble and turn pale as she got up quickly, shocked and alarmed.
“Oh, nothing! nothing! nothing WHATEVER, Mr. Temple Barholm!” she exclaimed, her agitation doing its best to hide itself behind a fine little dignity. He saw in an instant that his style of putting it had been “'way off,” that his ignorance had betrayed him, that she had misunderstood him altogether. He almost jumped at her.
“Oh, say, I didn't mean THAT!” he cried out. “For the Lord's sake! don't think I'm such a Tenderloin tough as to make a break like that! Not on your life!”
Never since her birth had a male creature looked at Miss Alicia with the appeal which showed itself in his eyes as he actually put his arm half around her shoulders, like a boy begging a favor from his mother or his aunt.
“What I meant was—” He broke off and began again quite anxiously, “say, just as a favor, will you sit down again and let me tell you what I did mean?”