Page:Elizabeth's Pretenders.djvu/246

Rh "I? What do you mean? I have helped to make you cynical?"

She hesitated a moment. "Well, it is like this, you see. The duke and duchess ignored my uncle and aunt until I came to live at Farley. They then began to overwhelm us with civilities, and your arrival there was announced to me as that of a clever, ambitious man, in search of an heiress. Do you wonder at my feeling nettled? I got over that feeling. I liked your society well enoagh, but—but it opened my eyes; that is, it ought to have opened my eyes to my own worth. The real opening came a little later."

"You hold yourself too cheap," he returned sharply. "If I were a rich man, and you hadn't a penny, I would marry you; because the more I see of you, the more I like you—a great deal better than any woman I ever met. If I didn't feel like that, I wouldn't have followed you here. Was I a fool to do so?"

"Knowing now how I feel, you will see it was useless."

"How could I tell you were so unreasonable on this subject? It is true, if you were poor I couldn't marry you, but the money is the least of your attractions to me now. That's the plain truth, Miss Shaw. You shake your head. Well, if you don't believe me—useless to stay. Only boring you, and can do no good. Hoped in time you might get to like me well enough to—well, to overlook my ugliness. I know that is it. If you had heard me speak in the House, it might have been different. Pitt was uglier than I am. But you never heard me speak. And you were prejudiced against me before you saw me. It can't be helped. I am bitterly