"You are welcome to the college, Sir Humphrey," she replied aloud. "Confess that it is a pretty sight. The president was talking to you about it all dinner-time. I hope that you are interested." "I think it is all tomfoolery," he replied ungraciously; "and a waste of good money too." "Hilarie wants money to make happiness. You do not look in the best of tempers, Humphrey." "I am not. I couldn't get enough to drink, and I have had to listen to a lot of stuff about women and priestesses." "Good stuff should not be thrown away, should it? Like good pearls." "I want to talk to you--away from this rabble. Where can we go?" "I will take you over the college." She led the way into the library, a retired place, where she sat down. "Do you ask how I am getting on?" "No, I don't." He remained standing. "You'll never go on the stage with my consent." "We shall see." By her quick dancing eye, by her mobile lips, by the brightness of her quaint, attractive face, which looked as if it could be drawn into shapes like an india-rubber face, she belied his prophecy. "Besides, Hilarie wants me to become a tragic actress. Please remember, once more, Humphrey, that what Hilarie wishes I must do. I owe everything to Hilarie--everything." "You drive me mad with your perverseness, Molly." "I am going to please myself. Please understand that, even if I were engaged to you, I would keep my independence. If you don't like that, take back your offer. Take it back at once." She held out both her hands, as if she was carrying it about. "You know I can't. Molly, I love you too much, though you are a little devil." "Then let me alone. If one is born in a theatre, one belongs to a theatre. I would rather be born in a theatre than in a West End square. Humphrey, you make me sorry that I ever listened to you." "Well, go and listen to that fiddler fellow who calls you Molly. Curse his impudence!" "Oh, if you had been only born differently! You belong to the people who are all alike. You sit in the stalls in a row, as if you were made after the same pattern; you expect the same jokes; you take the same too much champagne; you are like the pebbles of the seashore, all rounded alike." "Well, what would you have?" "The actors and show folk--my folk--are all different. As for kind hearts, how can you know, with your tables spread every day, and your champagne running like water? There's no charity where there's no poverty." "I don't pretend to any charity." "It is a dreadful thing to be born rich. You might have been so different if you had had nothing." "Then you wouldn't have listened to me." "Thank you. Listening doesn't mean consenting." "You cannot withdraw. You are promised to me." "Only on conditions. You want me to be engaged secretly. Well, I won't. You want me to marry you secretly. Well, I won't." "You are engaged to me."