“Of course I forget!” broke in the groom. “What would love be worth if it did n’t forget everything but itself? I forget I’m a bond-servant, you ’d say. So I should if I were a king. But you are too heartless to know what love is,” he ended bitterly.
“’T is not so,” denied Janice, angrily; “but I’ll love no redemptioner, though he be as good-looking and good-tempered as you are ill-natured and ugly.”
“And who are you,” demanded the man, passionately, “to take such mighty airs? A daughter of a nobody, dubbed Esquire because he is the biggest bubble in a pint pot.”
“I shall not stay here to be insulted,” cried Janice, moving away. But in the doorway her exasperation got the better of her dignity, and she faced about and said: “You evidently don’t know that my great-grandfather was Edward Byllynge.”
The man laughed contemptuously. “Why, you little ninny,” he retorted, “my great-grandfather was king of England!”
Janice caught hold of the lintel, and stood as if transfixed for a moment, even the mortifying epithet of the groom forgotten in her amazement. “A likely tale!” she ejaculated finally when the first mute surprise was conquered.
The bond-servant had gained control of himself in the pause, for he quietly rejoined: “’T is true enough, though nothing to make boast of, save to those who set great store by grandfathers.” Then, in a sadder tone, he added: “’T was a foolish brag I never thought to make, for it carries more shame than honour, and ’t is therefore best forgotten. Moreover, I ask your pardon for saying what else I did; ’t was my tongue and not my heart which spoke.”
The insult being atoned, Janice came back. “You said you would tell me your history.”
“But then—that was when I hoped—a fool I was.” The redemptioner paused, and then took a quick step toward Janice with an eager look on his face and his hand outstretched. “There is but one woman in the world can gain the right to hear my sorry tale. May I tell it to you?”
Young and inexperienced as the girl was, the implication of the question was too obvious for her to miss, and she replied, “No.”