"Well, by the biggest stroke of luck I've got you, sooner than I could
have dared to hope; and now I don't want to make you afraid of me. I know
my faults and failings, but I don't know how to put them right and be the
sort of man a girl like you can be proud of. It's up to you to show me
the way. Whenever you see me going wrong, you're to tell me. That's what
I want--turn me into a gentleman."
When Annesley tenderly reassured him with loving flatteries, he only
laughed and caught her in his arms.
"Like a prince, am I?" he echoed. "Well, I've got princely blood in my
veins through my mother; but there are pauper princes, and in the pauper
business the gilding gets rubbed off. I trust you to gild my battered
corners. No good trying to tell me I'm gold all through, because I know
better; but when you've made me shine on the outside, I'll keep the
surface bright."
Annesley did not like the persistent way in which he spoke of himself
as a black sheep who, at best, could be whitened, and trained not to
disgrace the fold; yet it piqued her interest. Books said that women had
a weakness for men who were not good and she supposed that she was like
the rest.
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