uble to enquire. Folding her hands she looked
in his eyes with childlike directness and said simply:

"Martin--I want to talk! You have said nothing about my position, but I
am waiting to hear what you think! I came down on purpose to talk."

"But, Grizel, what is there to say?" Martin spoke in quick practical
accents, his eyes sedulously avoiding hers. "I have not congratulated
you, because it hardly seemed that congratulations were deserved. On
the other hand, I cannot condole. Lady Griselda's mind had been failing
for years. I cannot believe that she was fully responsible when she
concocted--"

"You are wrong there. She was perfectly clear. I have always expected
some arrangement of the sort. She loved me; she was anxious for my
happiness. If it could be happily arranged she wished me to inherit the
money, but she had been an heiress herself, and had suffered by it, and
she was sharp enough to estimate the sincerity of the men who hung
around me. It's quite simple, Martin, if you remember the clue. If I
choose to remain single, I enjoy everything that her money can give; if
I marry, I marry a man who wants _me_, not my wealth; Grizel Dundas,--
herself--not what she can bring."

"He would be a bold man who could ask a girl to give up thirty thousand
a year, for the sake of his love!"

"Yes! He would need to be brave!"

The substitution of the word was so quiet as to appear unconscious.
Martin shot a piercing look, but the eyes which met his were as
expressionless as the voice. He leaped to his feet, and restlessly
paced the floor.

"But you, Grizel?" he cried. "No one could expect it of you! You are
born to the position; have been trained to it all your life. You will
be one of the great hostesses of the day. You are young, brilliant,
beautiful. The ordinary woman looks to love to provide the interest of
life, but you have so much. The world is at your feet--"

"Yes," sighed Grizel softly. "Yes." She sat staring before her with
rapt, smiling eyes. "And I love it, Martin. Pomp and show, and jewels,
and beautiful clothes, and--power! All women do at the bottom of their
hearts. If they pretend they don't, it is a humbug and a sham. I can
see myself living alone in that great house, very rich, very gorgeous;
not a bit lonely! Friends would flock around, more friends than I need.
Lovers too! for the unattainable is always tempting. I could amuse
myself very well."

"For heaven's sa