CHAPTER XXXVII 559
" And his sisters also?"
" No." " Only you?" " Only me." " Did you ask to learn?" " No." " He wished to teach you?" " Yes." A second pause. " Why did he wish it? Of what use could Hindostanee be to you?" " He intended me to go with him to India." " Ah! here I reach the root of the matter. He wanted you to marry him?" " He asked me to marry him." " That is a fiction-- an impudent invention to vex me."
" I beg your pardon, it is the literal truth: he asked me more than once, and was as stiff about urging his point as ever you could be."
" Miss Eyre, I repeat it, you can leave me. How often am I to say the same thing? Why do you remain pertinaciously perched on my knee, when I have given you notice to quit?"
" Because I am comfortable there."