release time:2023-12-07 01:46:28 source:Roe head mouse net author:{typename type="name"/}
"Very well. You will not wish me to abandon the privilege of thinking of past possibilities?"
"I would -- if it were possible."
"Quite impossible! One's thoughts, I imagine, are always supposed to be one's own."
"You know what I mean. A gentleman will always spare a woman if he can do so; and there are cases such as have been ours, in which it is a most imperative duty to do so. You should not have followed us when you had made up your mind about this young lady."
"I took care to let you know, beforehand, that I intended it." "You should not have thrown the weight upon me. You should not even have written to me."
"I wonder what you would have said then -- how loudly you would have abused me -- had I not written! Would you not have told me then that I had not the courage to be open with you?" He paused for an answer, but she made none. "But I do recognize the necessity of my becoming subject to abuse in this state of affairs. I have been in no respect false, nor in any way wanting in affection. When I suggested to you that 600 pounds a year between us, with an increasing family, and lodgings in Marylebone, would be uncomfortable, you shuddered at the prospect. When I explained to you that you would have the worst of it because my club would be open to me, you were almost angry with me because I seemed to imply that there could be any other than one decision."
"There could only be one decision -- unless you were man enough to earn your bread."
"But I wasn't. But I ain't. You might as well let that accident pass, sans dire. Was there ever a moment in which you thought that I should earn my bread?"
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