He considered.
“Well, yes,” he said, “perhaps you’d better.”
“And—” she went on, “if all is satisfactory—”
“Well?”
“You will go through with it?”
“I—suppose so. Altogether satisfactory it can’t be. I’m fairly well off as a bachelor, but that’s a very different matter. And—Maddie—I should hate poverty.”
“You would have no need to call it poverty,” she said rather coldly.
“Well—well—I’m speaking comparatively of course,” he replied, impatiently. “It would be what I call poverty. And I am selfish, I know. The best of me won’t come out under those circumstances. I’ve no right to marry, you see—that’s what’s been tormenting me.”
“But if she likes to face it—would not that bring out the best of you?” said Mrs Selby hopefully, though in her heart rather shocked by his way of speaking.
“Perhaps—I can’t say. But of course if she did—”