"In other words, our marriage is a bargain."
"If you please; it matters little what we call it."
"A pleasant position for me," said Carson, good-humouredly.
His wife sat silently looking at her plate, while he continued to eat his luncheon with the utmost indifference.
"Perhaps the position is a trying one for you," she said, at length; "but I dictated the terms of our union very clearly in the first instance; you were perfectly free to accept or reject them. You accepted them; your reasons were your own. No doubt they were good ones."
"Quite right; ours is purely a business marriage, or bargain. We can call it that between ourselves."
"If you were a different kind of man, if you cared for me, things might perhaps be different. But you do not care for me; you do not know what love is."
"Excuse me if I say that you are hardly in a position to judge," replied Angus, quietly. "And are you not a trifle inconsistent? If I loved you, in what position should I stand, seeing that your affections are very definitely engaged?"
"Excuse me if, in my turn, I say that you are not in a position to speak as to that."
"You may think so, but I am not blind. Oh no; it's too late in the day to talk of love."
"I wish to do my duty," retorted Olive, rather weakly, it must be confessed.
"You have done your duty," said Carson, amiably; "you have obeyed your father, and you have brought me fifty thousand pounds. You do not love me, neither do I care two straws about you."
"For the money solely," he replied, shamelessly. "I served your turn, you served mine. Were I in love with you, do you think I would rest content with the purely nominal position of your husband? By no means. For the money's sake I made you my wife. I agreed to your terms because it suited me to do so. Have I ever gone contrary to you in any way?"
"No; you fulfil your part of the bargain admirably," she said scornfully.
"Then you can ask no more of me. I shall not return to the Manor House with you to hold an ignominious position. Our mutual ends are accomplished: let us part."
"Do you intend to leave me, then?" she asked, feeling herself at a disadvantage.
"I do. I shall go to London--perhaps even abroad. At all events, I intend to lead my own life."