 him approaching her with unmistakable
purpose, that she wished to be wooed in less off-hand fashion before confessing
what was in her heart. For the moment he was disconcerted. Those last words of
hers had a slight tone of superiority, the last thing he would have expected
upon her lips.
    »Yet I surely haven't always appeared so - to you?« he said.
    »No, not always.«
    »But you are in doubt concerning the real man?«
    »I'm not sure that I understand you. You say that you do really think as you
speak.«
    »So I do. I think that there is no choice for a man who can't bear poverty.
I have never said, though, that I had pleasure in mean necessities; I accept
them because I can't help it.«
    It was a delight to Marian to observe the anxiety with which he turned to
self-defence. Never in her life had she felt this joy of holding a position of
command. It was nothing to her that Jasper valued her more because of her money;
impossible for it to be otherwise. Satisfied that he did value her, to begin
with, for her own sake, she was very willing to accept money as her ally in the
winning of his love. He scarcely loved her yet, as she understood the feeling,
but she perceived her power over him, and passion taught her how to exert it.
    »But you resign yourself very cheerfully to the necessity,« she said,
looking at him with merely intellectual eyes.
    »You had rather I lamented my fate in not being able to devote myself to
nobly unremunerative work?«
    There was a note of irony here. It caused her a tremor, but she held her
position.
    »That you never do so would make one think - but I won't speak unkindly.«
    »That I neither care for good work nor am capable of it,« Jasper finished
her sentence. »I shouldn't have thought it would make you think so.«
    Instead of replying she turned her look towards the door. There was a
footstep on the stairs, but it passed.
    »I thought it might be Dora,« she said.
    »She won't be here for another couple of hours at least,« replied Jasper
with a slight smile.
    »But you said -?«
    »I sent her to Mrs Boston Wright's that I might have an opportunity of
talking to you. Will you forgive the stratagem?«
    Marian resumed her
