CHAPTER XXIV 332
" Now, King Ahasuerus! What do I want with half your estate? Do you think I am a Jew-usurer, seeking good investment in land? I would much rather have all your confidence. You will not exclude me from your confidence if you admit me to your heart?"
" You are welcome to all my confidence that is worth having, Jane; but for God ' s sake, don ' t desire a useless burden! Don ' t long for poison-- don ' t turn out a downright Eve on my hands!"
" Why not, sir? You have just been telling me how much you liked to be conquered, and how pleasant over-persuasion is to you. Don ' t you think I had better take advantage of the confession, and begin and coax and entreat-- even cry and be sulky if necessary-- for the sake of a mere essay of my power?"
" I dare you to any such experiment. Encroach, presume, and the game is up."
" Is it, sir? You soon give in. How stern you look now! Your eyebrows have become as thick as my finger, and your forehead resembles what, in some very astonishing poetry, I once saw styled, ' a blue-piled thunderloft.' That will be your married look, sir, I suppose?"
" If that will be YOUR married look, I, as a Christian, will soon give up the notion of consorting with a mere sprite or salamander. But what had you to ask, thing,-- out with it?"
" There, you are less than civil now; and I like rudeness a great deal better than flattery. I had rather be a THING than an angel. This is what I have to ask,-- Why did you take such pains to make me believe you wished to marry Miss Ingram?"
" Is that all? Thank God it is no worse!" And now he unknit his black brows; looked down, smiling at me, and stroked my hair, as if well pleased at seeing a danger averted. " I think I may confess," he continued, " even although I should make you a little indignant, Jane-- and I have seen what