CHAPTER XIV 169
" You are dumb, Miss Eyre."
I was dumb still. He bent his head a little towards me, and with a single hasty glance seemed to dive into my eyes.
" Stubborn?" he said, " and annoyed. Ah! it is consistent. I put my request in an absurd, almost insolent form. Miss Eyre, I beg your pardon. The fact is, once for all, I don ' t wish to treat you like an inferior: that is "( correcting himself), " I claim only such superiority as must result from twenty years ' difference in age and a century ' s advance in experience. This is legitimate, et j ' y tiens, as Adele would say; and it is by virtue of this superiority, and this alone, that I desire you to have the goodness to talk to me a little now, and divert my thoughts, which are galled with dwelling on one point-- cankering as a rusty nail."
He had deigned an explanation, almost an apology, and I did not feel insensible to his condescension, and would not seem so.
" I am willing to amuse you, if I can, sir-- quite willing; but I cannot introduce a topic, because how do I know what will interest you? Ask me questions, and I will do my best to answer them."
" Then, in the first place, do you agree with me that I have a right to be a little masterful, abrupt, perhaps exacting, sometimes, on the grounds I stated, namely, that I am old enough to be your father, and that I have battled through a varied experience with many men of many nations, and roamed over half the globe, while you have lived quietly with one set of people in one house?"
" Do as you please, sir."
" That is no answer; or rather it is a very irritating, because a very evasive one. Reply clearly."
" I don ' t think, sir, you have a right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your