Page:Hilda Wade (1900).pdf/58

music-hall stage, the odds, one must admit, are on the whole against her.'

'Now, there you show prejudice!'

'One may be quite unprejudiced,' I answered, 'and yet allow that connection with the music-halls does not, as such, afford clear proof that a girl is a compound of all the virtues.'

'I think she's a good girl,' he retorted, slowly.

'Then why do you want to throw her over?' I inquired.

'I don't. That's just it. On the contrary, I mean to keep my word and marry her.'

'In order to keep your word?' I suggested.

He nodded. 'Precisely. It is a point of honour.'

'That's a poor ground of marriage,' I went on. 'Mind, I don't want for a moment to influence you, as Daphne's cousin. I want to get at the truth of the situation. I don't even know what Daphne thinks of you. But you promised me a clean breast. Be a man and bare it.'

He bared it instantly. 'I thought I was in love with this girl, you see,' he went on, 'till I saw Miss Tepping.'

'That makes a difference,' I admitted.

'And I couldn't bear to break her heart.'

'Heaven forbid!' I cried. 'It is the one unpardonable sin. Better anything than that.' Then I grew practical. 'Father's consent?'

'My father's? Is it likely? He expects me to marry into some distinguished English family.'

I hummed a moment. 'Well, out with it!' I exclaimed, pointing my cigar at him.

He leaned back in his chair and told me the whole story. A pretty girl; golden hair; introduced to her by a friend; nice, simple little thing; mind and heart above the irregular stage on to which she had been driven by poverty