‘ “I must find her; and when I do find her, I shall marry her.”

‘ “Not you!” and her voice took a sudden accent of peculiar scorn.

‘I liked this; I had roused her from the pensive mood in which I had first found her: I would stir her further.

‘ “Why doubt it?”

‘ “You marry!”

‘ “Yes—of course: nothing more evident than that I can, and shall.”

‘ “The contrary is evident, Mr. Moore.”

‘She charmed me in this mood: waxing disdainful, half-insulting; pride, temper, derision blent in her large, fine eye, that had, just now, the look of a merlin’s.

‘ “Favour me with your reasons for such an opinion, Miss Keeldar.”

‘ “How will you manage to marry, I wonder?”

‘ “I shall manage it with ease and speed when I find the proper person.”

‘ “Accept celibacy!”—and she made a gesture with her hand as if she gave me something: “Take it as your doom!”

‘ “No; you cannot give me what I already have. Celibacy has been mine for thirty years. If you wish to offer me a gift, a parting present, a keepsake, you must change the boon.”

‘ “Take worse, then!”

‘ “How? What?”

‘I now felt, and looked, and spoke eagerly. I was unwise to quit my sheet-anchor of calm even for an instant: it deprived me of an advantage and transferred it to her. The little spark of temper dissolved in sarcasm, and eddied over her countenance in the ripples of a mocking smile.

‘ “Take a wife that has paid you court to save your modesty, and thrust herself upon you to spare your scruples.”

‘ “Only show me where.”

‘ “Any stout widow that has had a few husbands already, and can manage these things.”

‘ “She must not be rich, then. Oh, these riches!”

‘ “Never would you have gathered the produce of the gold-bearing garden. You have not courage to confront the sleepless dragon! You have not craft to borrow the aid of Atlas!”

‘ “You look hot and haughty.”

‘ “And you far haughtier. Yours is the monstrous pride which counterfeits humility.”

‘ “I am a dependant: I know my place.”

‘ “I am a woman: I know mine.”