"Thank you," said Peter, and lit his cigarette.
"And surely, it's a countenance you'll need, to be going on
like that about her money. However--if you can find a ray of
comfort in the information--small good will her future husband
get of it, even if he is a fortunehunter: for she gives the
bulk of it away in charity, and I 'm doubtful if she keeps two
thousand a year for her own spending."
"Really?" said Peter; and for a breathing-space it seemed to
him that there was a ray of comfort in the information.
"Yes, you may rate her at two thousand a year," said Mrs.
O'Donovan Florence. "I suppose you can match that yourself.
So the disparity disappears."
The ray of comfort had flickered for a second, and gone out.
"There are unfortunately other disparities," he remarked
gloomily.
"Put a name on them," said she.
"There's her rank."
His impetuous adviser flung up a hand of scorn.
"Her rank, do you say?" she cried. "To the mischief with her
rank. What's rank to love? A woman is only a woman, whether
she calls herself a duchess or a dairy-maid. A woman with any
spirit would marry a bank manager, if she loved him. A man's a
man. You should n't care that for her rank."
"That" was a snap of Mrs. O' Donovan Florence's fingers.
"I suppose you know," said Peter, "that I am a Protestant."
"Are you--you poor benighted creature? Well, that's easily
remedied. Go and get yourself baptised directly."
She waved her hand towards the town, as if to recommend his
immediate procedure in quest of a baptistery.
Peter laughed again.
"I 'm afraid that's more easily said than done."
"Easy!" she exclaimed. "Why, you've only to stand still and
let yourself be sprinkled. It's the priest who does the work.
Don't tell me," she added, with persuasive inconsequence, "that
you'll allow a little thing like being in love with a woman to
keep you back from professing the true faith."
"Ah, if I were convinced that it is true," he sighed, still
laughing.
"What call have you to doubt it? And anyhow, what does it
matter whether you 're convinced or not? I remember, when I
was a school-girl, I never was myself convinced of the theorems
of Euclid; but I professed them gladly, for the sake of the
marks they brought; and the eternal verities of mathematics
remained unshaken by my scepticism."