"What?"
"About yourself. What can I do for you?"
"Oh, you needn't count me or Tattie. We don't want anything."
"That's all bosh. But you don't come in with the rest—I want to do more than that for you. Treat me as a pal. You're on the rocks, and I'm not; I've been there, and I know what it means. Let me give you a hundred to set you right."
"You want to give me a hundred pounds?" She threw back her astonished face at him—she was all white throat and eyes. "D' ye like me so much?"
"Damnably!" said Conrad.
The music had stopped, and now the bandsmen came hurrying past them. They stood looking shoreward, in a pause. On the dusk of the Parade the chain of electric globes quivered into light.
"It's rather rough on you," she murmured. "Isn't it? I've always drawn the line. It's no good."
"I didn't think it was. I shouldn't have told you if you hadn't asked me. I know; if a man cared about you, you'd expect him to want to marry you."
"Why shouldn't I?"