"
"Why do you always call me Mr. Morton?"
"Because I am aware how probable it is that all this may come to
nothing. I can't walk out of the house and marry you as the
cook maid does the gardener. I've got to wait till I'm told that
everything is settled; and at present I'm told that things are not
settled because you won't agree."
"I'll leave it to anybody to say whether I've been unreasonable."
"I won't go into that. I haven't meddled with it, and I don't know
anything about it. But until it is all settled as a matter of
course there must be some little distance between us. It's the
commonest thing in the world, I should say."
"What is to be the end of it?"
"I do not know. If you think yourself injured you can back out of
it at once. I've nothing more to say about it."
"And you think I can like the way you're going on here?"
"If you're jealous, Mr. Morton, there's an end of it. I tell you
fairly once for all, that as long as I'm a single woman I will
regulate my conduct as I please. You can do the same, and I shall
not say a word to you." Then she withdrew her arm from him, and,
leaving him, walked across the room and joined her mother. He went
off at once to his own room resolving that he would write to her
from Bragton. He had made his propositions in regard to money which
he was quite aware were as liberal as was fit.
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