"I ought to know; it's been talked of enough."
"And you know that if the marriage fail by your act, you will lose this legacy?"
"And that it will go to certain charitable institutions, and so be lost, not only to you, but to the family?"
"You know it, and yet you would deliberately throw yourself away on a fortune-hunting mechanic--a man whom you have known only since yesterday? It's incredible!"
"It is you who have said it--not I," she retorted; "but I'm not willing to admit that it would be all loss and no gain. There would at least be a brand-new set of sensations, and I'm very sure they wouldn't all be painful."
It was rebellion, pure and simple, and for once in his life Francis Vennor gave place to wrath--plebeian wrath, vociferous and undignified.
"Shame on you!" he cried; "you are a disgrace to the name--it's the blood of that cursed socialist on your mother's side. Sit still and listen to me--" Gertrude, knowing her own temper, was about to run away--"If you marry that infernal upstart, you'll do it at your own expense, do you hear? You sha'n't finger a penny of my money as long as I can keep you out of it. Do you understand?"
"I should be very dull if I didn't understand," she replied, preparing to make good her retreat. "If you are quite through, perhaps you will let me say that you are tilting at a windmill of your own building. So far as I know, Mr. Brockway hasn't the slightest intention of asking me to marry him; and until you took the trouble to demonstrate the possibility, I don't think it ever occurred to me. But after what you've said, I don't think I can ever consent to be married to Cousin Chester--it would be too mercenary, you know;" and with this parting shot she vanished.
In the privacy of her own stateroom she sat at the window to think it all out. It was all very undutiful, doubtless, and she was sorry for her part in the quarrel almost before the words were cold. She could scarcely forgive herself for having allowed her father to carry his assumption to such lengths, but the temptation had proved irresistible. It was such a delicious little farce, and if it might only have stopped short of the angry conclusion--but it had not, and therein lay the sting of it. Whereupon, feeling the sting afresh, she set her face flintwise against the prearranged marriage.