Being unmarried, he was not accustomed to opposition from a woman.

He had no intention of allowing her to pay her brother's debt, and he wished she would drop the subject gracefully, now that he had made that fact evident.
"Perhaps you don't know," continued Ruth, "that I am very well off." (As if he did not know it! As if Lady Mary had not casually mentioned Ruth's fortune several times in his hearing!) "Lady Deyncourt left me twelve hundred a year, and I have a little of my own besides.

You may not be aware that I have fourteen hundred and sixty-two pounds per annum." "I am very glad to hear it." "That is a large sum, you will observe." "It is riches," assented Charles, "if your expenditure happens to be less." "It does happen to be considerably less in my case." "You are to be congratulated.

And yet I have always understood that society exacts great sacrifices from women in the sums they feel obliged to devote to dress." "Dress is an interesting subject, and I should be delighted to hear your views on it another time; but we are talking of something else just at this moment." "I beg your pardon," said Charles, quickly, who did not quite like being brought back to the case in point.

"I--the truth was, I wished to turn your mind from what we were speaking of.