The Washington herald., 1914-01-04
I'm afraid Il does.

I'm afraid II does
what have you found out about Mr.
Armitage? Stay-before you speak
ought to tell you that what you say viii
in all probability be repeated to him: anc
while I'm about II I ought. perhaps, &c
tell you something else-and that is moi
very easy something to say"
She slipped at her glass; then she tooh
a cigarette out of a gold case and began
to smoke. / thought what an extremely
unprepossessing person she seemed
Rather to my surprise. and good deaI
to my confusion, she showed an unex-
pected capacity to read my thoughts.
You don't think I'm very much tc
look at. do you? I'm not: I never was
Time has not improved me. either outside
or in. When I was young I was very
poor For seven years 1 was a governess
at sometimes twenty. sometimes thirty
pounds a year, and lived upon my earn
ings-if you know what that means
couldn't expect to get married on that
could I? And no one wanted me any
how. though I wanted to marry very
badly. never remember the time when
the one thing of which I dreamed was
not to become some decent mans wife.
1t sounds funny. doesn't it?'
She fiicked the ash from her cigarette
I was beginning to wish that I had left
her alone, that I had not embraced an
opportunity OF doing her good.
when ! was thirty-eight 1 came into
a lot of money from an uncle, whom
don't remember. to have ever seen. II
turned my head: / thought that money
could do anything. i decided that now
would marry, and that / would marry
Just the sort OF man had always hoped
I would do. You see ] had practically
no knowledge of the world at aIl-how
can a woman have who has lived a life
like mine? 1t took seven or eight years
to make 1t clear to me that In thinking
because I had got money I could marry
the sort Of man I wanted to. I was a
fool"
seemed to be dislocated to enable her to
do SO, and she beckoned the waiter to
I'LL her glass.
Men wanted to marry mech, yes; but
they were the kind of men whom would
not, as the saying is, have touched with
the end of a barge pole. Whenever !
saw a masculine creature to whose ap-
pearance I particularly objected, / knew
that, sooner or later. he would ask me
to be his wife-which was nice No one
else ever did, so made a fool of myself
by way of seeking consolation"
The waiter brought her a fresh edition
glass to her lips.
Don't suppose that my desire to marry
grew less as my years grew more; that s
a silly notion which some young girls
seem to have. II have to advertise for
a husband. I'm going to have one before
1 die; SO you can imagine what 1t means
to me that Cecil Armitage has asked me
to be his wife. I don't know that I'm
particularly fond of him; I'm quite
aware that he isn't at all fond OF me- OF
course. / shall have to pay for him-you
needn't tell me that I've got more
money than some people think, or. be-
lieve. even than he suspects. / believe
he thinks that I've got two or three thou
sand a year; I'm a ricn woman, my dear.
Ny money has gone on increasing and in
creasing. and now I don't spend a tenth
Of my income. I don'tsmean to let him
know how much money I really have;
he'd want too much II did. don't sup
pose for moment that he isn't what
I've seen described az shop soiled;' he
wouldn't want to get money out OF me
at the price Of making me his wife IL he
wasn't in a nasty hole. And. bless you,
don't mind that; I've grown out of all
my illusions. You can tell me all you
know against him II you like, though /
don't know how you found II out; II will
give me pull over him when 1t comes
to talking matters over a little later on.
Nothing you can tell me to his discredit