"You seem so restless, and you
look pale."
"I am not at all well," said Morris; and it occurred to him that, if
he could only make her pity him enough, he might get off.
"I am afraid you are overworked; you oughtn't to work so much."
"I must do that." And then he added, with a sort of calculated
brutality, "I don't want to owe you everything!"
"Ah, how can you say that?"
"I am too proud," said Morris.
"Yes--you are too proud!"
"Well, you must take me as I am," he went on, "you can never change
me."
"I don't want to change you," she said gently. "I will take you as
you are!" And she stood looking at him.
"You know people talk tremendously about a man's marrying a rich
girl," Morris remarked. "It's excessively disagreeable."
"But I am not rich?" said Catherine.
"You are rich enough to make me talked about!"
"Of course you are talked about. It's an honour!"
"It's an honour I could easily dispense with."
She was on the point of asking him whether it were not a compensation
for this annoyance that the poor girl who had the misfortune to bring
it upon him, loved him so dearly and believed in him so truly; but
she hesitated, thinking that this would perhaps seem an exacting
speech, and while she hesitated, he suddenly left her.
The next time he came, however, she brought it out, and she told him
again that he was too proud. He repeated that he couldn't change,
and this time she felt the impulse to say that with a little effort
he might change.
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