“And what do you suppose she said?” he continued excitedly. “She said she wasn’t sure how much I really cared for her. How much! She holds out her hand for everything I bring and then she agreeably withdraws it when she sees nothing more. After I have made myself the talk of the town!”
“Well, you know what I told you,” remarked the Younger, who was much at sea. “Did you expect to bribe her?”
“Yes, I know what you told me. And I know what to think of such people.”
The Younger shrugged his shoulders.
“If that is the way you take it, I begin to think Susannah is right.”
The Elder threw him a look.
“But what does she want?” he cried, clasping his hands dramatically in the air. “What does she want that I can’t give her? What is she now, compared to what she would be as my wife?”
The Younger examined his finger nails.
“You have already had some opportunity to learn that an American girl is the most unfettered creature in the universe. She may think it more amusing to stay so than to become an Italian marchioness.”
“I thought you said they were respectable—your famous jeunes filles,” exclaimed the Elder sarcastically.