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.
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