“You assume—in spite of what I say—that she is a coquette!”
“I assume something because you evidently conceal something. I want the whole truth.”
Bernard turned back to the window with increasing irritation.
“If he wants the whole truth he shall have it,” he said to himself.
He stood a moment in thought and then he looked at his companion again.
“I think she would marry you—but I don’t think she cares for you.”
Gordon turned a little pale, but he clapped his hands together.
“Very good,” he exclaimed. “That ‘s exactly how I want you to speak.”
“Her mother has taken a great fancy to your fortune and it has rubbed off on the girl, who has made up her mind that it would be a pleasant thing to have thirty thousand a year, and that her not caring for you is an unimportant detail.”
“I see—I see,” said Gordon, looking at his friend with an air of admiration for his frank and lucid way of putting things.