d--visibly, at all events, and while
you talked with her you were the one person in the world in whom she
was interested.

Margaret's eyes had something of the same in them, but they were very
deep blue, and there was in them just that touch of maidenly reserve
which best becomes a maiden's eyes, until, to one at all events, she
may lay it aside and let her heart shine through.

Lady Elspeth looked at him, then, for half a minute, with a starry
twinkle, and then said, with a finality of conviction that made her
dearer to him than ever--

"Never!" and he kissed her hand with fervour,--and not ungracefully,
since the action, though foreign to him, was absolutely spontaneous.

"But--!" she said firmly. And he sat up.

"But me no buts," he said. "And why?"

"Well, you see, Margaret is by way of being an heiress--and you are
not."

"I'm sorry. But, you see, I couldn't very well be if I tried. Still
I'm not absolutely penniless, and--"

"Tuts, boy! What you have is just about enough to pay Jeremiah
Pixley's servants' wages."

"D-hang Jeremiah Pixley!"

"D-hang is not a nice expression to use before a lady, let me tell
you. What you have, as, I was saying, is just enough to make or mar
you--"

"It's going to make me. I can live on it till things begin to come my
way."

"Everyone writes nowadays," she said, with a dubious shake of the
head. "Who reads all the books passes my comprehension. I suppose you
have all just to buy one another's to make a bit of a living out of
it."

"Like those washing people! But it's not quite as bad as all that.
There are still some intelligent people who buy books--good books, of
course, I mean."

"Not many, I'm afraid. They read reviews and chatter as though they'd
read the books. And if they really want to read them they get them out
of a library. You don't see bought books lying on the tables, as you
used to do when I was a girl, and they were scarcer and dearer. How is
this last one going?"

"I have reason to believe my publishers are not absolutely
broken-hearted over it, which leads me to think that they have
probably done pretty well out of it. They are not what you might call
a gushing race, you know, but they have given me a kind of cautious
half-hint that they might not refuse to look at my next if I offered
it to them on my bended knees. But let us get back to our--to Miss
Brandt. I had no idea she was an heiress. I have really never thought
of money in the matter