A man in a million. He started
again shuffling to and fro. "You too," he said mournfully, keeping his
eyes down. "Eh? Wonderful man? But have you a notion who I am? Listen!
I have been the Great Mr. de Barral. So they printed it in the papers
while they were getting up a conspiracy. And I have been doing time. And
now I am brought low." His voice died down to a mere breath. "Brought
low."
He took his hands out of his pocket, dragged the cap down on his head and
stuck them back into his pockets, exactly as if preparing himself to go
out into a great wind. "But not so low as to put up with this disgrace,
to see her, fast in this fellow's clutches, without doing something. She
wouldn't listen to me. Frightened? Silly? I had to think of some way
to get her out of this. Did you think she cared for him? No! Would
anybody have thought so? No! She pretended it was for my sake. She
couldn't understand that if I hadn't been an old man I would have flown
at his throat months ago. As it was I was tempted every time he looked
at her. My girl. Ough! Any man but this.
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