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Page 6
"I'm sorry to say what I must say," he began. "But--you've
brought it on yourself. I gave you a hint some time ago that
your attentions were not welcome to Miss Bewery."
Bryce made no immediate response. Instead, leaning almost
carelessly and indifferently against the table at which he had
been busy with drugs and bottles, he took a small file from
his waistcoat pocket and began to polish his carefully cut
nails.
"Yes?" he said, after a pause. "Well?"
"In spite of it," continued Ransford, "you've since addressed
her again on the matter--not merely once, but twice."
Bryce put his file away, and thrusting his hands in his
pockets, crossed his feet as he leaned back against the table
--his whole attitude suggesting, whether meaningly or not, that
he was very much at his ease.
"There's a great deal to be said on a point like this," he
observed. "If a man wishes a certain young woman to become
his wife, what right has any other man--or the young woman
herself, for that matter to say that he mustn't express his
desires to her?"
"None," said Ransford, "provided he only does it once--and
takes the answer he gets as final."
"I disagree with you entirely," retorted Bryce. "On the last
particular, at any rate. A man who considers any word of a
woman's as being final is a fool. What a woman thinks on
Monday she's almost dead certain not to think on Tuesday. The
whole history of human relationship is on my side there. It's
no opinion--it's a fact."
Ransford stared at this frank remark, and Bryce went on,
coolly and imperturbably, as if he had been discussing a
medical problem.
"A man who takes a woman's first answer as final," he
continued, "is, I repeat, a fool. There are lots of reasons
why a woman shouldn't know her own mind at the first time of
asking. She may be too surprised. She mayn't be quite
decided. She may say one thing when she really means another.
That often happens. She isn't much better equipped at the
second time of asking. And there are women--young ones--who
aren't really certain of themselves at the third time. All
that's common sense."
"I'll tell you what it is!" suddenly exclaimed Ransford, after
remaining silent for a moment under this flow of philosophy.
"I'm not going to discuss theories and ideas. I know one
young woman, at any rate, who is certain of herself. Miss
Bewery does not feel any inclination to you--now, nor at any
time to be! She's told you so three times. And--you should
take her answer and behave yourself accordingly!"
Bryce favoured his senior with a searching look.
"How does Miss Bewery know that she mayn't be inclined to--in
the future?" he asked. "She may come to regard me with
favour."
"No, she won't!" declared Ransford. "Better hear the truth,
and be done with it. She doesn't like you--and she doesn't
want to, either. Why can't you take your answer like a man?"
"What's your conception of a man?" asked Bryce.
"That!--and a good one," exclaimed Ransford.
"May satisfy you--but not me," said Bryce. "Mine's different.
My conception of a man is of a being who's got some
perseverance. You can get anything in this world--anything!
--by pegging away for it."
"You're not going to get my ward," suddenly said Ransford.
"That's flat! She doesn't want you--and she's now said so
three times. And--I support her."
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