'Therefore, I need not repeat it,' replied Mr. Dering drily. 'I learn, then, that you are not only engaged to this young gentleman, but that you are also proposing to marry upon the small income which he now possesses.'
'Yes—we are prepared to begin the world upon that income.'
'Your mother asked me what chance he had in his profession. In this office he can never rise to a considerable salary as managing clerk. If he had money, he might buy a partnership. But he has none, and his friends have none. And the profession is congested. He may remain all his life in a position not much better than he now occupies. The prospect, Elsie, is not brilliant.'
'No—we are fully aware of that. And yet——'
'Allow me, my dear child. You are yourself—we will say for the moment—without any means of your own.'
'I have nothing.'
'Or any expectations, except from your mother, who is not yet sixty.'
'I could not count upon my mother's death. Besides, she says that, if I persist, she will not leave me anything at all.'
'So much I understand from herself. Her present intention is to remove your name from her will, in case you go on with this proposed marriage.'
'My mother will do what she pleases with her property,' said Elsie. 'If she thinks that I will give way to a threat of this kind, she does not know me.'