"Yes, damn it, I do!"
Jack laughed.
"So do I," he said; "but she has refused me."
"She knew enough to do it; she is a girl of sense. Certainly, I like her. She knows well enough that she has no right to encourage you."
"She knows something else, too."
"What's that?"
"She knows that she doesn't care for me anyway," said the boy with a quiet simplicity that, somehow, left a confused and restless resentment in Mr. Rivett's breast.
"Doesn't care for you?" repeated his father slowly. "She'd care for you fast enough if she dared."
"Dared!" Jack laughed. "If she had cared for me, she'd have told me—and sent me about my business all the same; don't worry about that. But she doesn't care about me.... I think, sweet and generous as she is, she does not consider our family as particularly desirable for an alliance."
"What! My employee!"