She knows that I
shouldn't have been such an ass as to talk of marriage without
the prospect of something to live upon.'
'I suppose she's wretched?' said Dora.
'What else can you expect?'
'And did you propose to release her from the burden of her
engagement?' Maud inquired.
'It's a confounded pity that you're not rich, Maud,' replied her
brother with an involuntary laugh. 'You would have a brilliant
reputation for wit.'
He walked about and ejaculated splenetic phrases on the subject
of his ill-luck.
'We are here, and here we must stay,' was the final expression of
his mood. 'I have only one superstition that I know of and that
forbids me to take a step backward. If I went into poorer
lodgings again I should feel it was inviting defeat. I shall stay
as long as the position is tenable. Let us get on to Christmas,
and then see how things look. Heavens! Suppose we had married,
and after that lost the money!'
'You would have been no worse off than plenty of literary men,'
said Dora.
'Perhaps not. But as I have made up my mind to be considerably
better off than most literary men that reflection wouldn't
console me much.
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