"Git a move!" he shouted into the mouthpiece. "Good-bye!"
and he hung up.
Then he turned back toward the angry girl.
"Look here," he said. "Once youse was strong on de sob
stuff wit me, tellin' me how noble I was, an' all de different
tings youse would do fer me to repay all I done fer youse.
Now youse got de chanct."
"What do you mean?" asked the girl, puzzled. "What can I
do for you?"
"Youse kin do dis fer me. When Mallory gits here youse
kin tell him dat de engagement is all on again--see!"
In the wide eyes of the girl Billy read a deeper hurt than he
had dreamed of. He had thought that it would not be difficult
for her to turn back from the vulgar mucker to the polished
gentleman. And when he saw that she was suffering, and
guessed that it was because he had tried to crush her love by
brute force he could carry the game no further.
"O Barbara," he cried, "can't you see that Mallory is your
kind--that HE is a fit mate for you. I have learned since I
came into this house a few minutes ago the unbridgeable
chasm that stretches between Billy Byrne, the mucker, and
such as you. Once I aspired; but now I know just as you
must have always known, that a single lifetime is far too short
for a man to cover the distance from Grand Avenue to
Riverside Drive.
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