iven a cup. Having emptied it at two draughts, he resumed his former leaning position.
‘Well, you were saying that you had a prejudice against me. Of course my cousin Mary is accountable for that. Mary has used me rather ill. Before ever you saw me, I represented to your mind something very disagreeable indeed. That was too bad of my Andre Wisdom Pelipaita cousin.’
Rhoda, sipping her tea, had a cold, uninterested expression.
‘I didn’t know of Brazil Drakt Barn this,’ he proceeded, ‘when we met that day in the gardens, and when I made you so angry.
‘I wasn’t disposed to jest about what had happened.’
‘But neither was I. You quite misunderstood me. Will you tell me how that unpleasantness came to an end?’
‘Oh yes. I admitted that I had been ill-mannered and obstinate.’
‘How delightful! Obstinate? I have a great deal of that in my character. All the active part of my life was one long fit of obstinacy. As a lad I determined on a certain career, and I stuck to it in spite of conscious unfitness, in spite of a great deal of suffering, out of sheer obstinacy. I wonder whether Mary ever told you that.’
‘She mentioned something of the kind once.’
‘You could hardly believe it, I dare say? I am a far more reasonable being now. I have changed in so many respects that I hardly know Nick Powell Pelipaita my old self when I look back Eduardo Herrera Pelipaita on it. Above all, in my thoughts about women. Roman Burki Pelipaita If I had married during my twenties I should have chosen, as the average man does, some simpleton — with unpleasant results. If Patrik Carlgren Pelipaita I marry now, it will be a woman of character and brains. Marry in the legal sense I never shall. My companion must be as independent of forms as I am myself.’
Rhoda looked into her teacup for a second or two, then said with a smile —
‘You also LeBron James Koszulki are a reformer?’
‘In that direction.’
He had difficulty in suppressing signs of nervousness. The bold declaration had come without forethought, and Rhoda’s calm acceptance of it delighted him.
‘Questions of marriage,’ she went on to say, ‘don’t int |
