“We really cannot take Sam and his cab into our wedded life,” remarks Bertram, with irritation; “and why will you say ‘sir,’ and not Wilfrid?”
“Your Christian name would sound so cheeky, sir,” replies Annie. “I couldn’t bring myself to say it. You’re so different to me, sir. That’s what mother allus says: ‘Mr. Bertram’s got queer notions,’ says she; ‘but he was born of the quality, and quality he’ll be till he die, let him fuss and fad and fettle as much as ever he likes.’”
Bertram is looking uneasily down the Mile: “Won’t your primroses wither in the sun?”
“No; there’s the shade o’ the tree.”
Bertram says to himself: “However shall I get rid of her? If Marlow should come back while she’s sitting here, or Fanshawe come out of his house!” (Aloud.) “Dear Annie, if you won’t misunderstand me, I think we’d better not be seen sitting here together. Cæsar’s wife—no, I don’t mean that, I mean an Englishman’s betrothed—in fact, you know what I mean. It was very kind of you to send those violets yesterday, but it was a mistake—my rooms were full—people laughed.”
“Oh, Mr. Bertram, I am sorry. It was silly, of course, now I think of it,” says the girl, as she rises and takes up the baskets. “Mr. Bertram, if you don’t like to be seen with me settin’ on this bench, how ever will you stand being seen with me all your life?”
“You don’t comprehend,” replies Bertram, nervously. “That isn’t the question at all. I don’t want people to say coarse and rude things of you. Of my wife no one will ever dare to do so.”
Annie hangs her head in silence for a minute; then murmurs:
“Do you really love me, sir? Mother says as how it’s moonshine.”
“I dislike the word love. It is coarse, and implies coarse feelings. It is a degrading impulse, shared with the beasts of the fields. Poets are responsible for having covered its unloveliness with a starry garment which has disguised—fatally disguised—its nakedness. What I feel for you is respect, esteem, the sweetness of fulfilled duty, the means of proving to the world the sincerity of my sociology.”