Page 490 - of-human-bondage-

‘I say, why don’t you come over to Paris then?’ he sug-
gested. ‘We’d have such a ripping time.’
‘How could you? It would cost no end of money.’
Philip had thought of that. It would cost at least five-and-
twenty pounds. It was a large sum to him. He was willing to
spend his last penny on her.
‘What does that matter? Say you’ll come, darling.’
‘What next, I should like to know. I can’t see myself going
away with a man that I wasn’t married to. You oughtn’t to
suggest such a thing.’
‘What does it matter?’
He enlarged on the glories of the Rue de la Paix and the
garish splendour of the Folies Bergeres. He described the
Louvre and the Bon Marche. He told her about the Cabaret
du Neant, the Abbaye, and the various haunts to which for-
eigners go. He painted in glowing colours the side of Paris
which he despised. He pressed her to come with him.
‘You know, you say you love me, but if you really loved
me you’d want to marry me. You’ve never asked me to mar-
ry you.’
‘You know I can’t afford it. After all, I’m in my first year, I
shan’t earn a penny for six years.’
‘Oh, I’m not blaming you. I wouldn’t marry you if you
went down on your bended knees to me.’
He had thought of marriage more than once, but it was
a step from which he shrank. In Paris he had come by the
opinion that marriage was a ridiculous institution of the
philistines. He knew also that a permanent tie would ruin
him. He had middle-class instincts, and it seemed a dread-