"But," continued Verdant, "perhaps the lady she described did not care for me, or she would not have given all her love to the dark man." "I think," faltered Miss Patty, "the gipsy seemed to say [276 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN] that the lady preferred the light man. But you do not believe what she told you?" "I would have done so a few days ago - if it had been repeated by you." "I scarcely know what you mean." "Until to-day I had hoped. It seems that I have built my hopes on a false foundation, and one word of yours has crumbled them into the dust!" This pretty sentence embodied an idea that he had stolen from his own ~Legend of the Fair Margaret~. He felt so much pride in his property that, as Miss Patty looked slightly bewildered and remained speechless, he reiterated the little quotation <VG276.JPG> about his crumbling hopes. "Whatever can I have done," said the young lady, with a smile, "to cause such a ruin?" "It caused you no pain to utter the words," replied Verdant; "and why should it? but, to me, they tolled the knell of my happiness." (This was another quotation from his ~Legend.~) "Then hurrah for the pirate bold. And hurrah for the rover wild!" sang the meek Mr. Poletiss. Miss Patty Honeywood began to suspect that Mr. Verdant Green had taken too much champagne! "What ~do~ you mean?" she said. "Whatever have I said or done to you that you make use of such remarkable expressions?" "And hurrah for the yellow gold, And hurrah for the ocean's child!" chorussed Messrs. Poletiss, Bouncer, and Co. Looking as sentimental as his spectacles would allow, Mr. Verdant Green replied in verse - " 'Hopes that once we've loved to cherish May fade and droop, but never perish!' as Shakespeare says." (Although he modestly attributed this sentiment to the Swan of Avon, it was, nevertheless, another quotation from his own ~Legend~.) "And it is my case. ~I~ cannot forget the Past, though ~you~ may!" [AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 277] "Really you are as enigmatical as the Sphinx!" said Miss Patty, who again thought of Mr. Verdant Green in connection with champagne. "Pray condescend to speak more plainly, for I was never clever at finding out riddles." "And have you forgotten what you said to me, in reply to a question that I asked you, as we came up the hill?" "Yes, I have quite forgotten. I dare say I said many foolish things; but what was the particular foolish thing that so dwells on your mind?" "If it is so soon forgotten, it is not worth repeating." "Oh, it is! Pray gratify my curiosity. I am sorry my bad memory should have given you any pain." "It was not your bad memory, but your words." "My bad words?" "No, not bad; but words that shut out a bright future, and changed my life to gloom." (The ~Legend~ again.) Miss Patty looked more perplexed than ever; while Mr. Poletiss politely filled up the gap of silence with an imitation of King George the Third.