“Pah! Go and find your rich cousin, and tell her that.”
”—My rich cousin,” he cried, hotly. “She’s gone, and jolly go with her. I know I made up to her—the guv’nor wanted me to, for the sake of her tin—but I’m sick of the whole business, and I wouldn’t marry her if she’d got a hundred and fifty millions instead of a hundred and fifty thousand.”
“And do you think I’m so weak and silly as to believe all this?” she cried.
“I d’know,” he said, quietly. “I think you will. Clever girl like you can tell when a fellow’s speaking the truth.”
“Go away at once, before my brother comes.”
“Shan’t I wouldn’t go now for a hundred brothers.”
“Oh,” panted Jenny. “Can’t you see that you will get me in fresh trouble with him, and make me more miserable still?”
“I don’t want to,” he said, softly, “and I’d go directly if I thought it would do that, but I wouldn’t go because of being afraid. I say, ain’t you precious hard on a fellow? I know I’ve been a brute, but I think I’ve got some good stuff in me, and if I could make you care for me I shouldn’t turn out a bad fellow.”
“I will not listen to you. Go away.”
“I say, you know,” he continued, as he stood still in the doorway, “why won’t you listen to me and be soft and nice, same as you were at first?”