‘Even so, carissima.’
‘A government clerk on three hundred pounds a year.’
‘With another hundred of private income in addition.’
‘A truly munificent income on which to marry!’ she answered, not without a ring of scorn, real or assumed, in her voice as she withdrew her fingers from his grasp. ‘I think I know the kind of thing it implies. A stuffy little house in Camden Town or Peckham Rye—wherever those localities may be. Perhaps even furnished apartments. One small servant, not overclean. No opera, no brougham in the Park, no garden-parties, no carpet-dances, no more flirtations with nice young men. Locomotion by means of a twopenny ’bus or tram.; long, lonely days without a soul to talk to; now and then an order for the theatre; au reste, my husband’s buttons to sew on and his socks to keep in repair. Oh, I can guess it all!’
A tinge of colour had flickered into Dick’s cheeks while she was speaking, but it now died out again. He was quite aware that nothing would delight her more than to tease him till he should lose his temper; therefore, he answered as equably as before: ‘Evidently Lady Renshaw’s lessons have not been quite thrown away on you.’
One of her little feet began to tap the ground impatiently. ‘It seems to me, Mr Richard Dulcimer, that the best thing you can do is to take the next train back to town.’
‘Shan’t do anything of the kind.’
‘You are a very self-willed young man.’ To judge from her tone, she might have been twice his age. It is a way her sex sometimes have.
‘Obstinate as a mule,’ answered the philosophic Richard.
‘Suppose I tell you that I have had enough of your society? Suppose I order you to leave me here and at once?’