"Perfectly so; yet supposing I refuse?"
"And deliberately choose the Gayety instead?"
"Yes, and deliberately choose the Gayety instead—what then?"
She asked the momentous question calmly enough, her mouth rigid, her eyes challenging him to speak the whole truth. He moistened his dry lips, realizing that he was being forced into an apparently brutal bluntness he had sincerely hoped to avoid.
"Then," he replied, with quiet impressiveness, "I fear such deliberate action would forfeit my respect."
She went instantly white before the blow of these unexpected words, her fingers clasping the door, her eyes as full of physical pain as if he had struck her with clinched hand.
"Forfeit your respect!" she echoed, the slender figure quivering, the voice tremulous. "Rather should I forever forfeit my own, were I to accept your proffer of money." Her form straightened, a slight tinge of color rising to the cheeks. "You totally mistake my character. I have never been accustomed to listening to such words, Mr. Winston, nor do I now believe I merit them. I choose to earn my own living, and I retain my own self-respect, even although while doing this I am unfortunate enough to forfeit yours."
"But, Miss Norvell, do you realize what the Gayety is?"
"Not being deprived of all my natural powers of observation, I most certainly believe I do—we were there together last evening."
She puzzled, confused him, outwardly appearing to trifle with those matters which seemed to his mind most gravely serious. Yet, his was a dogged resolution that would not easily confess defeat.