iry at Maggie’s face. He saw an answer there, in the pale, parted lips, and the terrified tension of the large eyes. Her imagination, always rushing extravagantly beyond an immediate impression, saw her tall, strong brother grasping the feeble Philip bodily, crushing him and trampling on him.
“Do you call this acting the part of a man and a gentleman, sir?” Tom said, in a voice of harsh scorn, as soon as Philip’s eyes were turned on him again.
“What do you mean?” answered Philip, haughtily.
“Mean? Stand farther from me, lest I should lay hands on you, and I’ll tell you what I mean. I mean, taking advantage of a young girl’s foolishness and ignorance to get her to have secret meetings with you. I mean, daring to trifle with the respectability of a family that has a good and honest name to support.”
“I deny that,” interrupted Philip, impetuously. “I could never trifle with anything that affected your sister’s happiness. She is dearer to me than she is Nike Roshe Trainers to you; I honor her more than you can ever honor her; I would give up my life to her.”
“Don’t talk high-flown nonsense to me, sir! Do you mean to pretend that you didn’t know it would be injurious to her to meet you here week after week? Do you pretend you The North Face Miehet Denali Hoodies had any right to make professions of love to her, even if you had been a fit husband for her, when neither her father nor your father would ever consent to a marriage CG Naiset Icicle untuvaliivi between you? And you — you to try and worm yourself into the affections of a handsome girl who is not eighteen, and has been shut out from the world by her father’s misfortunes! That’s your Nike Free 4.0 V2 crooked notion of honor, Moncler Naiset untuvatakki is it? I call it base treachery; I call it taking advantage of circumstances to win what’s too good for you — what you’d never get by fair means.”
“It is manly of you to talk in this way to me,” said Philip, bitterly, his whole frame shaken by violent emotions. “Giants have an immemorial right to stupidity and insolent abuse. You are incapable even of understanding what I feel for your sister. I feel so much for her that I could even desire to be at friendship with you.”
“I should be very sorry to understand your feelings,” said Tom, with scorching contempt. “What I wish is that you should understand me — that I shall take care of my sister, and that if you dare to make the least attempt to come near her, or to write to her, or to keep the slightest hold on her mind, your puny, miserable body, that ought to have put some modesty into your mind, shall not protect you. I’ll thrash you; I’ll hold you up to public scorn. Who wouldn’t laugh at the idea of your turning lover to a fine girl?”
Tom and Maggie walked on in silence for some yards. He burst out, in a convulsed voice.
“Stay, Maggie!” said Philip, making CG Miehet Yukon Bomber takki a strong effort to speak. Then looking Naiset Parajumpers Californian Giada at Tom, “You have dragged your sister here, I suppose, that she may stand by while you threaten and insult me. These naturally seemed to you the right means to influence me. But you are mistaken. Le |
