Did the girl
realize what she was saying?
She glanced up at him.
"I never meant to tell any one about that part of it," she said
hurriedly. "And--it wasn't necessary, after all; I got the money
another way."
He bit off the point of a pencil he had been sharpening with
laborious care.
"I should probably never have had a chance to marry a millionaire,"
she concluded reminiscently. "I'm not beautiful enough."
With what abominable clearness she understood the game: the
marriage-market; the buyer and the price.
"I--didn't suppose you were like that," he muttered, after what
seemed a long silence.
She seemed faintly surprised.
"Of course you don't know me," she said quickly. "Does any man know
any woman, I wonder?"
"They think they do," he stated doggedly; "and that amounts to the
same thing."
His thoughts reverted for an uncomfortable instant to Wesley Elliot
and Fanny. It was only too easy to see through Fanny.
"Most of them are simple souls, and thank heaven for it!"
His tone was fervently censorious.
She smiled understandingly.
"Perhaps I ought to tell you further that a rich man--not a
millionaire; but rich enough--actually did ask me to marry him, and I
refused."
"H'mph!"
"But," she added calmly, "I think I should have married him, if I had
not had money left me first--before he asked me, I mean. I knew all
along that what I had determined to do, I could do best alone."
He stared at her from under gathered brows.
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