"There you are--that's frank. There's been no deception on either side. After all that there's been between us don't let's have any unpleasantness, for both our sakes. I'm as sorry for the position to which we've managed to bring things as you can be; you must know I am. At present I'm stony, but shortly I hope to have the command of plenty of money." "Are you going to get it from Miss Patterson or Miss Austin?" "What does it matter where it comes from?" "So far as I'm concerned it matters a good deal." "It'll be my own money." "If you'll have so much money of your own why can't you marry me?" "If I do marry you I'll have no money?" "Are you going to get it with your wife? Which wife?" "I can understand how you're feeling, so I'll try not to mind your being bitter, though it isn't like you one scrap. I can only implore you to trust me, to leave it all to me; I'll arrange everything. If you're right in what you fear you'll find a place ready for you when the time comes, in which you'll be comfortable, in which you'll have everything you want, and when it's over, if you like you can come home again, and no one will be one whit the wiser, and you won't be an atom the worse. It's done every day." "Is it? And the child--what about the child?" "The child? If it is my child----" "If? if? if? What do you mean by 'if'? You'd better be careful, Rodney, what you are saying. What do you mean by 'if'?" "My dear girl, it was only a way of speaking." "Then don't you speak that way. 'If' it is your child! When you knew me I was innocent, and I'm innocent now except for you. Don't you dare to say if! You know it is your child!" "My dear girl, of course I know it's my child. You won't let a fellow finish what he is going to say. I was only going to say that the child shall want for nothing; it shall have everything a child can have. So shall you; you'll be much better off than if you were my wife." "If the child is born, and I am not your wife, I'll kill myself--and it. Or, rather, if I'm not going to be your wife, I'll kill myself before it's born, as sure as you are alive." "Mabel, don't talk like that--don't! I can't bear it. If you only knew how it hurts!" "Hurts! As if anything hurts you! Nothing could hurt you, nothing; you're not built that way. Do you suppose that I don't know what kind of man you are--that you're an all-round bad lot?" "To say a thing like that, after pretending to care for me!" "Pretending! There wasn't much pretence about my caring; I proved it. You wouldn't let me rest until I did. Not only did I care for you, but I do care for you; and I shall continue to care for you as long as I live. No other man can ever be to me what you have been." "That's more like the Mabel I know."