 with loving words.
    »How can I make you feel how much I love you?« she murmured.
    »You mustn't be so literal, dearest. Women are so desperately
matter-of-fact; it comes out even in their love-talk.«
    Marian was not without perception of the irony of such an opinion on
Jasper's lips.
    »I am content for you to think so,« she said. »There is only one fact in my
life of any importance, and I can never lose sight of it.«
    »Well now, we are quite sure of each other. Tell me plainly, do you think me
capable of forsaking you because you have perhaps lost your money?«
    The question made her wince. If delicacy had held her tongue, it had not
control of his.
    »How can I answer that better,« she said, »than by saying I love you?«
    It was no answer, and Jasper, though obtuse compared with her, understood
that it was none. But the emotion which had prompted his words was genuine
enough. Her touch, the perfume of her passion, had their exalting effect upon
him. He felt in all sincerity that to forsake her would be a baseness, revenged
by the loss of such a wife.
    »There's an uphill fight before me, that's all,« he said, »instead of the
pretty smooth course I have been looking forward to. But I don't fear it,
Marian. I'm not the fellow to be beaten. You shall be my wife, and you shall
have as many luxuries as if you had brought me a fortune.«
    »Luxuries! Oh, how childish you seem to think me!«
    »Not a bit of it. Luxuries are a most important part of life. I had rather
not live at all than never possess them. Let me give you a useful hint; if ever
I seem to you to flag, just remind me of the difference between these lodgings
and a richly furnished house. Just hint to me that So-and-so, the journalist,
goes about in his carriage, and can give his wife a box at the theatre. Just ask
me, casually, how I should like to run over to the Riviera when London fogs are
thickest. You understand? That's the way to keep me at it like a steam-engine.«
    »You are right. All those things enable one to live a better and fuller
life. Oh, how cruel that I
