Page:Magician 1908.djvu/24

20 “You must know that I’ve been wanting you to do that ever since I was ten.”

She was quite willing to give up her idea of Paris and be married without delay, but Arthur pressed her not to change her plans. At first Margaret vowed it was impossible to go, for she knew now that she had no money, and she could not let her lover pay.

“But what does it matter?” he said. “It’ll give me such pleasure to go on with the small allowance I’ve been making you. After all, I’m pretty well-to-do. My father left me a moderate income, and I’m making a good deal already by operating.”

“Yes, but it’s different now. I didn’t know before. I thought I was spending my own money.”

“If I died to-morrow every penny I have would be yours. We shall be married in two years, and we’ve known one another much too long to change our minds. I think that our lives are quite irrevocably united.”

Margaret wished very much to spend this time in Paris, and Arthur had made up his mind that in fairness to her they could not marry till she was nineteen. She consulted Susie Boyd, whose common-sense prevented her from paying much heed to romantic notions of false delicacy.

“My dear, you’d take his money without scruple if you’d signed your names in a church vestry, and as there’s not the least doubt that you’ll marry, I don’t see why you shouldn’t now. Besides, you’ve got nothing whatever to live on, and you’re equally unfitted to be a governess or a typewriter. So it’s