"Just what you might expect of a fellow in my fix--all kinds of gamble and drink and--the rest of it."
Miss Leslie looked away, visibly distressed. She had not been reared after the French method. Young as she was, she had fluttered at will about the borders of the garden of vice, knowing well that the gaudy blossoms were lures to entice one into the pitfall. Yet never before had she caught so clear a glimpse of the slimy depths.
"That's it!" growled Blake. "Throw me down cold, just because I'm square enough to tell you straight out. You make me tired! I'm not one of the work-ox sort, that can chew the cud all the year round, and cork the blood out of their brains. I've got to cut loose from the infernal grind once in a while, and barring a chance now and then at opera, there's never been anything but a spree--"
"Oh, but that's so dreadfully shocking, Mr. Blake!"
"And then like all the other little hypocrites, you'll go and marry one of those swell dudes who's made that sort of thing his business, and everybody knows it, but it's all politely understood to've been done sub rosa, so it's all right, because he knows how to part his name in the middle and--"
"Please, please stop, Mr. Blake! You don't know how cruel you are!"
"Cruel? Suppose I told you about the millionaire cur that-- Oh, now, don't go and cry! Please don't cry, Miss Jenny! I wouldn't hurt your feelings for the world! I didn't mean anything out of the way, really I didn't! It's only that when I get to thinking of--of things, it sets me half crazy. And now, can't you see how it's going to be ten times worse for me after--with you so altogether beyond me--" He stopped short, flushed, and stammered lamely, "I--I didn't mean to say that!"
"Please let us talk of something else," she murmured. "It has been such a pleasant morning, until you--until we began this silly discussion."
"All right, all right! Only mop up the dewdrops, and we'll turn on the sun machine. I really didn't mean to rip out that way at all. But, you see, the thing's been rankling in me ever since we came aboard ship at the Cape, and Winthrope and Lady Bayrose had my seat changed so I couldn't see you-- Not that I hold anything against them now--"
