“It is an honorable passion?” I asked.
“What the devil—” began Dick.
“Pardon,” I interposed. “I believe you. But the world is complex, and I merely asked. You are then engaged?”
Dick frowned.
“We haven't used that word,” he replied.
“But you intend to be?”
He was silent for a little, and then, with some bitterness, said: “My earnings for the last three years average £37, 11s., 4d. I have had two briefs precisely this term, and I am thirty years old. It would be an excellent thing to get engaged.”
“But your father; he will surely help you?”
“He will see me damned first.”
“Then he will not approve of Miss Grey?”