`` Have you meant it often ? '' asked Mollie significantly . `` I never meant it -- or even played at it -- before , '' he answered . `` I did -- at one time -- contemplate the possibility of playing at it . But that was long ago -- as long ago as last night . I am glad to the core of my soul that I decided against it before I met you , dear Eve . I have the letter of decision in my coat pocket this moment . I mean to mail it this afternoon . '' '' ` Curiosity knows no gender , ' '' quoted Mollie . `` Then , to satisfy your curiosity , I must bore you with some personal history . My parents died when I was a little chap , and my uncle brought me up . He has been immensely good to me , but he is a bit of a tyrant . Recently he picked out a wife for me -- the daughter of an old sweetheart of his . I have never even seen her . But she has arrived in town on a visit to some relatives there . Uncle Dick wrote to me to return home at once and pay my court to the lady ; I protested . He wrote again -- a letter , short and the reverse of sweet . If I refused to do my best to win Miss Mannering he would disown me -- never speak to me again -- cut me off with a quarter . Uncle always means what he says -- that is one of our family traits , you understand . I spent some miserable , undecided days .
It was not the threat of disinheritance that worried me , although when you have been brought up XXXXX regard yourself as a prospective millionaire it is rather difficult to adjust your vision to a pauper focus .
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