Page:Zangwill-King of schnorrers.djvu/252

238 I strove to take her hand; but she drew it away haughtily.

"Lord Everett, it is impossible! Say no more."

The twang dropped from her speech in her dignity; her accents rang pure and sweet.

"Why not?" I cried passionately. "Why is it impossible? You seemed to care for me."

She was silent; at last she answered slowly:

"You are a lord! I cannot marry a lord."

My heart gave a great leap, then I felt cold as ice.

"Because I am a lord?" I murmured wonderingly.

"Yes! I—I—flirted with you at first out of pure fun—believe me, that was the truth. If I loved you now," her words were tremulous and almost inaudible, "it would be right that I should be punished. We must never meet again. Good-bye!"

She stood still and extended her hand.

I touched it with my icy fingers.

"Oh! if you had only let me confess just now what I wanted to!" I cried in agony.

"Confess what?" she said. "Have you not confessed?"

"No! You may disbelieve me now; but I wanted to tell you that I am not a lord at all, that I only became one through Jones."

Her lovely eyes dilated with surprise. I explained briefly, confusedly.

She laughed, but there was a catch in her voice.

"Listen! " she said hurriedly, starting pacing again j "I, too, have a confession to make. Jones has corrupted me too. I'm not an heiress at all, nor even an American—just a moderately successful London actress, resting a few weeks, and Mrs. Windpeg is only my companion and general factotum, the widow of a drunken stage-carpenter, who left her without resources, poor thing. But we had hardly