‘And that other path leads—whither?’ she asked softly, and with her eyes still fixed vaguely on the hills behind him.
‘To love in a cottage—or, say, in a semi-detached villa at Camden Town or Peckham Rye, with one small servant, not overclean.’ Evidently he had not forgotten what she had said to him on Wednesday. Their eyes met, and they both broke into a laugh. He put the match-box back in his pocket and took possession of her hand again.
‘You know that all I can offer you is a warm heart and a slender purse,’ he said. ‘Not much, I grant, from a worldly point of view; still, I believe cases have been known where two people have been venturesome enough to start in life together on a capital as ridiculously insignificant as that just named, and have not been unhappy afterwards. On the other hand, you know the brilliant future which your aunt predicts for you, if you will only be an obedient girl and do as she wants you to do; that is to say, if you will only marry the first rich man who proposes to you, whether you care for him or whether you don’t. Well, there are many young ladies nowadays who seem to find their happiness in that direction. Why shouldn’t you? As you said yourself the other day, you are a piece of human bric-à-brac to be knocked down to the highest bidder.’
‘Don’t, don’t!’ she cried with quivering lips.
‘Be mine, then!’ exclaimed Dick passionately. ‘Become the wife of the man who loves you, and save yourself from further degradation. At present you are a slave—a chattel. Break your fetters, cast them behind you for ever, and come to my arms: there is your proper home!’
‘O Dick, what would my aunt say—what would she do?’ she asked in an uncertain, tremulous voice.
‘There! now you’ve done it!’ he exclaimed with a laugh, that yet sounded as if there were a tear in it.
‘Done—what?’ she asked in amaze.
‘Told me all that I want to know!’ he cried in triumph. ‘If your aunt is the only obstacle—I don’t care for ten thousand aunts! You are mine—my own—and all the she-dragons in the world shall not tear you from me!’
Bella saw the uselessness of further resistance, and, like a sensible girl, she capitulated without another word.