Part 40 (1/2)
”I a.s.sure you I have no intention whatever of playing with Amiria's heart. It was she who played with mine, and nearly won. But I saved myself by flight. It was fortunate I had a good horse.”
Rose laughed. ”One would imagine you were hardly big enough to look after yourself. That's the kind of young man they generally send out from England. Well?”
”As I was coming home I met a digger molesting another friend of mine, a Miss Varnhagen.”
”You'd better be careful--she's a flirt.”
”Then I rather like flirts. I threw the digger into the river, and took her home. She has the most lovely eyes I ever saw.”
”And she knows how to use them.”
”You're jealous, I'm afraid. Wouldn't you want to look at the man who had saved you from an ugly brute, who met you in the dark on a narrow bridge from which you couldn't possibly escape?”
”Perhaps. But why don't you feel a little sentimental over the girl who saved you from a watery grave? You're callous, I'm afraid, Mr.
Scarlett.”
”Not at all: I'm merely flattered. It seems a pity I can't stop in Timber Town, and see more of such girls; but I must be off to-morrow to get more gold. Gold is good, Miss Summerhayes, but girls are better.”
”Fie, fie. Gold and a good girl--that's perfection.”
”They always go together--I quite understand that.”
”Now you're frivolling. You're making yourself out to be _blase_ and all that. I shall tell my father to forbid you the house.”
”In which case I shall call on Miss Varnhagen.”
”That would be all right--you would meet with the punishment you deserve. Marry the Varnhagen girl, and you will be grey in two years, and bald in five.”
”Well, I'm going to the gold-fields to-morrow.”
”So you said. I hope you will have the same luck as before.”
”Is that all you have to say?”
”What more do you want?”
”Any amount.”
”You've got gold: you've got feminine adoration. What more is there, except more gold?”
”More feminine adoration.”
”I should have thought you had to-day as much affection as is good for you.”
”You're in high spirits to-night.”
”I am. It's jolly to think of people succeeding. It's jolly to know somebody is growing rich, even if my old father and I are poor, that is too poor for me to go to a.s.sembly b.a.l.l.s and private dances and things like that. So I sit at home and sew, and make puddings, and grow roses.
Heigh-ho! I'm very happy, you know.”