"You mentioned the fact, I believe," he continued, "that you were--that you had done me the honor--that you were, in fact, my fiancée." "Well?" she murmured. "Under those circumstances," he continued, "don't you think--" His hand rested for a moment upon hers. She drew it at once away. "No, I think not!" she answered. "I have not had much experience," he went on, "in being engaged, but it seemed to me that there were certain privileges which belonged to that state." "You are perfectly well aware," she answered, "that ours is not an engagement of that sort. You know something about the world in which the men marry for position and the women for money, don't you? You can look upon our engagement as being of that order. I marry you because it is the only way I can make you pay your debt. I have given you notice from the first. I mean to gain everything I can, and to give nothing." "Nothing?" he repeated. "As little as possible," she answered. "As a matter of fact, you are singularly indifferent to me. You simply represent the things I desire, the things which are owing to me, the things which were owing to--to him. I marry you to acquire them. You marry me because you must." "Well," he said, "ours promises to be a novel matrimonial experience." "Not at all," she answered. "You have been reading too many novels," he declared. "People really don't marry in this sort of way at all. There is always a pretence of sentiment about it. If not, for very shame's sake, they try to cultivate it." "Then we," she answered, "will remain exceptions." "Do you dislike me?" he asked. "Personally I have not thought about you," she answered. "Apart from that, I hate you. You represent the victor, and all that I have loved upon this earth have been the vanquished. Willingly I would not give you so much as the touch of my fingers. If I thought that my presence was a pleasure to you, I would shrink back into myself. If I thought that any happiness could come to you from our association, even now I would throw myself from the car and end it." "Our prospects of matrimonial bliss," he remarked, "appear to me to be distinctly above the average." "I do not expect," she answered, "to find any pleasure that may come to me in later life, at your hands." "I shall certainly not allow you to flirt." "I know the law," she answered. "I know what I may do and what I may not do. I shall not transgress it. I want your money, I want your position, I want your power. These things I will share with you. For the rest, you cannot keep too far away to please me." He leaned towards her, heedless of the fact that she was shrinking away. There was something a little pitiful in the blue-gray eyes which tried so hard to hold him at a distance. "Well," said he, "it will be an interesting experiment, at any rate. Personally, I think that you are a brave woman. I wonder that you did not take the money without me."