There was silence for some moments.
At last he spoke in as persuasive a voice as he could summon.
"Take it sensibly, Jessie. Why should we, who have so much in
common, quarrel into melodrama? I swear I love you. You are all
that is bright and desirable to me. I am stronger than you,
older; man to your woman. To find YOU too--conventional!"
She looked at him over her shoulder, and he noticed with a twinge
of delight how her little chin came out beneath the curve of her
cheek.
"MAN!" she said. "Man to MY woman! Do MEN lie? Would a MAN use
his five and thirty years' experience to outwit a girl of
seventeen? Man to my woman indeed! That surely is the last
insult!"
"Your repartee is admirable, Jessie. I should say they do,
though--all that and more also when their hearts were set on such
a girl as yourself. For God's sake drop this shrewishness! Why
should you be so--difficult to me? Here am I with MY reputation,
MY career, at your feet. Look here, Jessie--on my honour, I will
marry you--"
"God forbid," she said, so promptly that she never learnt he had
a wife, even then. It occurred to him then for the first time, in
the flash of her retort, that she did not know he was married.
"'Tis only a pre-nuptial settlement," he said, following that
hint.
He paused.
"You must be sensible. The thing's your own doing. Come out on
the beach now the beach here is splendid, and the moon will soon
be high."
"_I_ WON'T" she said, stamping her foot.
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