Page:The Mystery of Central Park.djvu/19

Rh how much I care for you," softly, "how fond I am of you, but I will not marry you until you prove that you are able to do something."

"It's all very easy to talk about," he replied savagely, "but what can I do? I don't dare risk what little I have in Wall street. I don't know enough to preach, or to be a doctor, or a lawyer, and it takes too infernally long to go back to the beginning and learn. You object to my following the races, and I couldn't sell ribbons or run a hotel to save me. Tell me what to do, Penelope, and I will gladly make the attempt. When you took a—a craze to walk in the Park at a hideous hour every morning before your friends, who don't think it good form, were out to frown you down, did I not promise to be your escort, and haven't I faithfully got up—or stayed up—to keep my promise?"

"And only late—let us see how many times?" she asked roguishly.