"
"Are you leaving that for me to decide?" she asked.
"To a great extent I have to; I don't want to appear to take so much
for granted. And then, only you can measure what I have to offer. I
believe what I have done is considered serious, if not ruinous; but
that I can't help thinking is exaggerated. I haven't been struck down
yet. I don't, candidly, now, expect to be. You ought to come to this
through your head, and not the heart, which I'd naturally prefer you to
use. What, in fact, I am asking you is to go away with me, to live with
me. I shall not, and you couldn't, very well, return. It's quite final,
in other words. I must find out, too, if the irregularity upsets you.
That need only be temporary. Grove and Fanny, I am sure, wouldn't
persist in being disagreeable. But, if they did, we'd have to face that
as well, the consequences of my--my impatience.
"No, don't answer so quickly. Do you know me, are you sure you'd be
happy, satisfied, with me? I have some money, not a great deal for
myself now; I should say fifteen thousand dollars a year. Fanny, very
rightfully--for herself and the children--will get most of what I have.
And then, are you wedded, if not to your individual life here, to New
York? We should have to go away to some place rather vague--"
"Cuba," she broke in.
The irony of that suggestion carried him back to the many vainly
projected trips there with Fanny.
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