fool I! For to try to win what hasn't any more existence than the pot at
the rainbow's tail is clear waste of time. Deep you are; but you haven't
got any of the commodity of affection in your breast."

"Why didn't you tell me this before, like an honest man?" she asked;
"and I'd have told you you didn't know as much as you thought you did."
Her voice was a little thick; but it was expressionless.

"I'm not green. If you'd known you were possessed of money, d'you
suppose you'd have stayed here to marry me? Oh no, I meant to get that
little ceremony over first, and _spring the mine_ on you for a wedding
present _after_. The reason I've told you now is that I wouldn't marry
you now, not if you'd ten millions of dollars in cash in your pocket."

"Why not? If I'm the person you take me for, I'm as rich and clever
now." She still sat with her back to him; her voice so impassive that
even interrogation was hardly expressed in words that had the form of a
question.

"Yes, and you'd be richer and cleverer now with me, by a long chalk,
than without me! If you'd me to say who you are, and that I'd known it
all along, and how you'd got here, and to bring up the railroad fellows
(I've got all their names) who noticed you to bear witness, your claim
would look better in the eyes of the law. 'Twould look a deal better in
the eyes of the world, too, to come as Mrs. Cyril P. Harkness, saying
you had been Miss Cameron, than to come on the stage as Miss White,
laying claim to another name; and it would be a long sight more
comfortable to have me to support and cherish you at such a time than
not to have a friend in the world except the folks whose eyes you've
pulled the wool over, and who'll be mighty shocked. Oh, yes; by Jemima!