'And now I must go,' she said at last. 'You'll see me as far as the Angel, won't you?' Of course he was ready to see her as far as the Angel. 'What am I to say to the Squire?'
'Say nothing.'
'And what am I to say to aunt?'
'Say to her? Just say what you have said all along.'
'I've said nothing all along,--just to oblige you, Felix. I must say something. A girl has got herself to mind. What have you got to say to me, Felix?'
He was silent for about a minute, meditating his answer. 'If you bother me I shall cut it, you know.'
'Cut it!'
'Yes;--cut it. Can't you wait till I am ready to say something?'
'Waiting will be the ruin o' me, if I wait much longer. Where am I to go, if Mrs Pipkin won't have me no more?'
'I'll find a place for you.'
'You find a place! No; that won't do. I've told you all that before. I'd sooner go into service, or--'
'Go back to John Crumb.'
'John Crumb has more respect for me nor you. He'd make me his wife to-morrow, and only be too happy.'
'I didn't tell you to come away from him,' said Sir Felix.
'Yes, you did. You told me as I was to come up to London when I saw you at Sheepstone Beeches;--didn't you? And you told me you loved me;-- didn't you? And that if I wanted anything you'd get it done for me;-- didn't you?'
'So I will. What do you want? I can give you a couple of sovereigns, if that's what it is.'
'No it isn't;--and I won't have your money. I'd sooner work my fingers off. I want you to say whether you mean to marry me. There!'
As to the additional lie which Sir Felix might now have told, that would have been nothing to him. He was going to New York, and would be out of the way of any trouble; and he thought that lies of that kind to young women never went for anything. Young women, he thought, didn't believe them, but liked to be able to believe afterwards that they had been deceived. It wasn't the lie that stuck in his throat, but the fact that he was a baronet. It was in his estimation 'confounded impudence' on the part of Ruby Ruggles to ask to be his wife. He did not care for the lie, but he did not like to seem to lower himself by telling such a lie as that at her dictation. 'Marry, Ruby! No, I don't ever mean to marry. It's the greatest bore out. I know a trick worth two of that.'