Page:A M Williamson - The Motor Maid.djvu/135

Rh "I am not in the least cross," he returned, ferociously. "Why should I be?—even if I had a right, which I have n't."

"Not the right of a brother?"

"Hang the rights of a brother!" exclaimed Mr. Dane.

"Then don't you want to be my brother any more?"

He walked away from me a few steps, down the corridor, then turned abruptly and came back. "It is n't a question of what I want," said he, "but of what I can have. Sometimes I think that after all you 're nothing but an outrageous little flirt."

"Sometimes? Why, you 've only known me two days. As if you could judge!"

"Far be it from me to judge. But it seems as though the two days were two years."

"Thank you. Well, I may be a flirt—the French side of me, when the other side is n't looking. But I 'm not flirting with you."

"Why should you waste your time flirting with a wretched chauffeur?"

"Yes, why? Especially as I've other things to think of. But I don't want your advice about those things now. I would n't have it even if you begged me to. You 've been too unkind."

"I beg your pardon, with all my heart," he said, his voice like itself again. "I 'm a brute, I know! It 's that beastly temper of mine, that is always getting me into trouble—with myself and others. Do forgive me, and let me help you. I want to very much."

"I just said I would n't if you begged."

"I don't beg. I insist. I 'll inflict my advice on you,