Page:Georgie by Dorothea Deakin, 1906.djvu/56

"Georgie" "Now it's Anne who does the talking—teaching me how to behave. She never found fault with my behavior in the old days. Now, it seems, I am full of faults. She doesn't like my manners."

"Your what, Georgie?"

He flushed.

"Don't try to be funny. What's the matter with my manners, anyhow? She doesn't like slang. Imagine me without slang!"

"I can't," said I. "When I think," he finished gloomily, "that for the rest of my life I shall have to sit at breakfast opposite a woman who is trying to reform me, I—oh, put yourself in my place ! It's unspeakable. I'd rather hang myself, and cut the whole sickening show."

I laughed kindly.

"Poor old chap," said I, "why do you drift into these things so painfully early, Georgie? You ought not to have thought of marriage for another five years. Cricket and football and hunting and all the rest 40