Page:Doctor Syn - A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh.djvu/128

 gambling, and loose living, with precious little learning, he'll settle down to the gentleman's life, marry some person of quality, and you—eh? what of you, then?"

"I earn my living now, don't I?" replied the girl. "Well, what's to prevent me going on the same?"

"Don't you want to marry?" went on the schoolmaster. "Don't you want a house of your own? Don't you want to be the envy of all the girls in the village?"

"Not at the price of my happiness; and, besides, I'm not so sure that I do want all those things so desperate. I'm afraid the wife of Mister Rash would be too genteel a job for me."

"Oh, I'd soon educate you up to that," returned the schoolmaster, looking pleased.

"It 'ud be a great nuisance to both of us, wouldn't it?"

"I shouldn't mind—it would be a pleasant business making a respectable woman of you, Imogene. You see, you're not common like these village girls, and that's what attracts me; otherwise, it might have been better for me to have fixed my choice on one of them: one that hasn't a bad mark against her, so to speak. But I don't mind what folk say. I suppose they'll talk a bit and laugh behind my back. Well, let 'em, say I. I don't care, because I want you."

"Then it's a pity that I'm not the same way of thinking, isn't it?"