"Oh, of course," he returned, "it's all her fault that you take it badly, isn't it? It's all her fault that you quarrel with me when I confide in you? That's rich! It strikes me I've behaved about as well as a fellow could, in telling you how things stand; I needn't have said anything till it was settled. I think you might pretend to be glad even if you aren't."
"'Glad'?"
"Yes, glad. What's to prevent your being glad? One would imagine I was doing you some infernal injury by the way you talk."
"I'm talking for your own good; you're too young to get married. Before you've been——"
"Oh, I know all about that!" he cried; "I should always be too young, according to you. I tell you what it is: you're not thinking of my good at all—you're thinking of yourself. You don't like the idea of my marrying; you've got it in your head that you'll 'lose' me if I marry—you said so at the beginning—and so you call me names, and run her down—a girl you've never seen—and try to persuade yourself it's holy affection for me. But it isn't, it isn't anything of the kind. It's just selfishness; and as you've used such very plain English, I'll use some too and tell you so. It's sheer selfishness, to want me to spoil my life to please you. What have you ever done for me, that you should expect me to sacrifice myself for you? I think it's disgusting."
His handsome face was flushed, his manner insolent. The girl to whom his attachment presented him at his best would scarcely have recognised her lover here at his worst. He stirred in Ownie memories of his father, memories of scenes in the Liverpool villa when the fur business had become involved. She did not speak; her lips twitched. Although her objections appeared to David unreasonable, he felt sorry for her. Whatever her faults towards others, she had always been fond of Vivian—it jarred that Vivian reproached her for selfishness.
After a little pause she said wistfully: "If that's the way you feel, I'm afraid I can't expect to see much of you in future whether you marry or not?"
"You don't see much of me now; I don't live here."
"But you belong to me still," she pleaded.
He looked towards David with an air of triumph. "You see what I say is quite true: it isn't for my sake that she's against my marrying, but for her own—I'm to sacrifice myself because she's jealous."