I 'm a failure, that 's all; I 'm not a first-rate man.

I 'm second-rate, tenth-rate, anything you please.

After that, it 's all one!" Mary Garland turned away and buried her face in her hands; but Roderick, struck, apparently, in some unwonted fashion with her gesture, drew her towards him again, and went on in a somewhat different tone.

"It 's hardly worth while we should have any private talk about this, Mary," he said.

"The thing would be comfortable for neither of us.