"
There was coquetry now in the tantalizing look she flashed him.
"Am I, too, then, one of these things to be attained in your
life?" she asked. "Dear Leonard, you mustn't say it like that.
I don't like the look of your jaw. It frightens me."
"There is nothing to be afraid of in marrying me," he answered.
"I should make you a very good husband. Some day you would be
rich, very rich indeed. I am quite sure that I shall succeed, if
not at once, very soon. There is plenty of money to be made in
the world if one perseveres."
She had the air of trying to take him seriously.
"You sound quite convincing," she admitted, "but I do wish that
you would put all these thoughts out of your mind, Leonard. It
doesn't sound like you in the least. Remember what you told me
that first night; you assured me that women had not the slightest
part in your life."
"I have changed," he confessed. "I did not expect anything of
the sort to happen, but it has. It would be foolish of me to
deny it. I have been all my life learning, Beatrice," he
continued, with a sudden curious softness in his tone, "and yet,
somehow or other, it seems to me that I never knew anything at
all until lately. There was no one to direct me, no one to show
me just what is worth while in life. You have taught me a great
deal, you have taught me how little I know. And there are
things," he went on, solemnly, "of which I am afraid, things
which I do not begin even to understand.
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