"So it _was_ you, after all! But what in the world are you doing here like this?
They told me your name was Patches--Honorable Patches." Then the man spoke--impetuously, almost fiercely, his words came without thought.
"I am here because I would be anything, do anything that a man could be and do to win your love.

A year ago, when I told you of my love, and asked you to be my wife, and, like the silly, pampered, petted fool that I was, thought that my wealth and the life that I offered could count for anything with a woman like you, you laughed at me.

You told me that if ever you married, you would wed a man, not a fortune nor a social position.

You made me see myself as I was--a useless idler, a dummy for the tailors, a superficial chatterer of pretty nothings to vain and shallow women; you told me that I possessed not one manly trait of character that could compel the genuine love of an honest woman.

You let me see the truth, that my proposal to you was almost an insult.