Now it leaped abruptly into
the forefront, and she felt helpless and constrained, unable to urge her
appeal. The answer Tony could give back was so obvious.
"I haven't the least intention of giving it up," he said in a hard voice.
"It's the chief pleasure in life to me. Trailing around Lorne and harrying
his tenants happen to be Uncle Philip's pet enjoyments. I don't ask him to
give those up. And I reserve the right to amuse myself in my own way."
He switched the conversation on to another subject, and, after a decent
interval, excused himself on the plea that he must "unpack his traps."
Ann watched him stalking back to the house with gravely wistful eyes.
Neither by word nor look had he implied the slightest recollection of the
occasion when he had asked her to be his wife nor of her answer, and she
realised that with the ingrained pride of his race he chose to consider the
incident as closed. "_Then that's finished_," he had said at the time. "_I
shan't ask you again_." And he had meant every word of it. With a
headstrong determination he had accepted his dismissal and henceforward
regarded himself as free to make ducks and drakes of his life if it so
pleased him.
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