Page:Georgie by Dorothea Deakin, 1906.djvu/274

"Georgie" "Oh, come," said I hopefully, "Let's hope it isn't quite as black as it 's painted. There must be something left, and after all, Georgie, the Manor Estate—"

"Good Lord!" he interrupted me, indignantly. "We sha'n't starve, if that's what you mean, and if you think I mind having to work you 're jolly well mistaken. There are heaps of things a man can do that are simply ripping. Ranching, and horse-training, and mounted police, and fighting—oh, I could go out and help those jolly little Japs like anything. It isn't that. It's Diana."

"I see." It hadn't occurred to me to think of that as a complication.

"Her father's affairs are a bit shaky, don't you see? He was looking to me to restore the fallen fortunes of the ancient house, to give his prehistoric name a leg up, and all that sort of thing, don't you know. He'll never let me have Di now, and even if he did, how could I go to her when we've quarreled, and ask to be taken back—penniless? 'Please will you for- 258