22/32 But after a pause of some minutes he said slowly,-- "Such a man as I cannot afford to love any one. What have I to offer to the woman I might pretend to love? If I know what they are, and that I have never possessed them, it is about as much as I do know of them. If I have any redeeming grace, Diana Paget, it lies in the fact that I know what a worthless wretch I am. Your father thinks he is a great man, a noble suffering creature, and that the world has ill-used him. |