Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 1.djvu/193

Rh seemed to give itself out to him as if to encourage him to go on. But he went on only to the extent of adding; "All I mean is that if I'm good enough for her she has only to take me."

"You're good enough for the best girl in the world," Rose said with the tremor of sincerity. "You're honest and kind; you're generous and wise." She looked at him with a sort of intelligent pleasure, that of a mind fine enough to be touched by an exhibition of beauty even the most occult. "You're so sound—you're so safe that it makes any relation with you a real luxury and a thing to be grateful for." She shed on him her sociable approval, treating him as a happy product, speaking of him as of another person. "I shall always be glad and proud that you've been, if only for an hour, my friend!"

Paul's response to this demonstration consisted in getting slowly and heavily to his feet. "Do you think I like what you do to me?" he abruptly demanded.

It was a sudden new note, but it found her quite ready. "I don't care whether you like it or not! It's my duty, and it's yours—it's the right thing."