t him!"

"M, D, and a princely crown," he reflected. "I wish I had an Almanach de
Gotha."

VI

"Who was it said of some one that he dearly loved a lord?" Maria
Dolores, her chin in the air, asked of Frau Brandt.

"I do not know," Frau Brandt replied, knitting.

"Well, at least, you know whether it would be possible for a man and
wife to live luxuriously on sixpence a week. Would it?" pursued her
tease.

"You are well aware that it would not," said Frau Brandt.

"How about six hundred pounds a year?"

"Six hundred pounds--?" Frau Brandt computed. "That would be six
thousand florins, no? It would depend upon their station in the world."

"Well, suppose their station were about my station--and my lord's?"

"You," said Frau Brandt, with a chuckle of contentment, swaying her
white-bonneted head. "You would need twice that for your dress alone."

"One could dress more simply," said Maria Dolores.

"No," said Frau Brandt, her good eyes beaming, "you must always dress in
the very finest that can be had."

"But then," Maria Dolores asked with wistfulness, "what am I to do? For
six hundred pounds is the total of his income."

"You have, unless I am mistaken, an income of your own," Frau Brandt
remarked.

"Yes--but he won't let me use it," said Maria Dolores.

"He? Who?" demanded Frau Brandt, bridling. "Who is there that dares to
say let or not let to you?

"My future husband," said Maria Dolores. "He has peculiar ideas of
honour. He does not like the notion of marrying a woman who is richer
than himself. So he will marry me only on the condition that I send my
own fortune to be dropped in the middle of the sea."

"What nonsense is this?" said Frau Brandt, composed.

"No, it is the truth," said Maria Dolores, "the true truth. He is too
proud to live in luxury at his wife's expense."

"I like a man making conditions, when it is a question of marrying you,"
said Frau Brandt, with scorn.

"So do I," said Maria Dolores, with heartiness.

"Well, at any rate, I am glad to see that he is not after you for your
money," Frau Brandt reflected.

"I suppose we shall have to dress in sackcloth and dine on lentils,"
said Maria Dolores.

"Of course you will tell him to take his conditions to the Old One,"
said Frau Brandt. "It is out of the question for you to change the
manner of your life."

"I feel indeed as if it were," admitted Maria Dolores. "But if he
insists?"

"Then tell him to go to the Old On