stem,
and stood twisting it between her fingers.

"Why did you--do it?" she asked.

"Do it?" he repeated.

"I mean the--fortune. Georgy told me--how you--helped him to find it,
and I--_know_ how it came there, of course. Why did you--do it?"

"You didn't tell him--how it came there?" asked Bellew anxiously.

"No," she answered, "I think it would break his heart--if he knew."

"And I think it would have broken his heart if he had never found it,"
said Bellew, "and I couldn't let that happen, could I?" Anthea did not
answer, and he saw that her eyes were very bright in the shadow of her
lashes though she kept them lowered to the rose in her fingers.

"Anthea!" said he, suddenly, and reached out his hand to her. But she
started and drew from his touch.

"Don't!" she said, speaking almost in a whisper, "don't touch me. Oh! I
know you have paid off the mortgage--you have bought back my home for me
as you bought back my furniture! Why?--why? I was nothing to you, or you
to me,--why have you laid me under this obligation,--you know I can
never hope to return your money--oh! why,--why did you do it?"

"Because I--love you, Anthea, have loved you from the first. Because
everything I possess in this world is yours--even as I am."

"You forget!" she broke in proudly, "you forget--"

"Everything but my love for you, Anthea,--everything but that I want you
for my wife. I'm not much of a fellow, I know, but--could you learn
to--love me enough to--marry me--some day, Anthea?"

"Would you have--dared to say this to me--before to-night?--before your
money had bought back the roof over my head? Oh! haven't I been
humiliated enough? You--you have taken from me the only thing I had
left--my independence,--stolen it from me! Oh! hadn't I been
shamed enough?"

Now, as she spoke, she saw that his eyes were grown suddenly big and
fierce, and, in that moment, her hands were caught in his
powerful clasp.

"Let me go!" she cried.

"No," said he, shaking his head, "not until you tell me if you--love me.
Speak, Anthea."

"Loose my hands!" She threw up her head proudly, and her eyes gleamed,
and her cheeks flamed with sudden anger. "Loose me!" she repeated. But
Bellew only shook his head, and his chin seemed rather more prominent
than usual, as he answered:

"Tell me that you love me, or that you hate me--whichever it is, but,
until you do--"

"You--hurt me!" said she, and then, as his fingers relaxed,--with a
sudden passiona