“Since you say so,” she said, with her heart beating, “I will not object to the word. I am not frightened by words: and I have neither father nor mother. Oh, don’t think I forget what you said about that last time you asked me to meet you in the shop, that it was to receive information. And now you stop me and want to begin again, in a way very different from getting information. Yes, I want to know what you mean. It is quite true: which of us is it you want to please? Answer me!” cried Janet, stamping upon the floor with her foot. “Is it her, or is it me?” “Alas, that it can’t be both! My dear child, I should like to please you both, if that is how you put it,” said Meredith. It was so dark that she could scarcely see his face, but he had twisted the long boa round his arm, so as to bring her nearer to him. She stamped her foot again upon the ground, and began to loosen her boa. “Answer me!” she said. “Don’t put a poor fellow in a corner, Janet. I have to temporize like other people. You have almost made me lose my head; but I can’t afford it, don’t you know. I can’t throw things up like that: and there’s no hurry--we’re all young enough; let us wait and see what may turn up.” “Is that all you have got to say?” said Janet, uncoiling the boa from her throat. “What can any one say more? You women have the most confounded way of putting a fellow in a corner. There’s no need for any such desperate decision. Let us wait a bit and enjoy ourselves as much as we can in the meantime,” said Meredith, manipulating the boa on his side.