s, and you will find that a little money won't
stand in the way of your being accepted."

He had made some gesture of protest, not against her speaking of his
possible marriage, which scarcely interested him, so remote was the
possibility, but against her returning to this other proposal. And when
he saw the old woman really meant to do this thing, he found it
necessary to declare himself explicitly on the point. "Oh, don't
imagine, Mrs. Lavender," he said, "that I have any wild horror of money,
or that I suppose anybody else would have. I should like to have five
times or ten times as much as you seem generously disposed to give me.
But here is the point, you see. I am a vain person. I am very proud of
my own opinion of myself; and if I acceded to what you propose--if I
took your money--I suppose I should be driving about in that fine
phaeton you speak of. That is very good: I like driving, and I should be
pleased with the appearance of the trap and the horses. But what do you
fancy I should think of myself--what would be my opinion of my own
nobleness and generosity and humanity--if I saw Sheila Mackenzie walking
by on the pavement, without any carriage to drive in, perhaps without a
notion as to where she was going to get her dinner? I should be a great
hero to myself then, shouldn't I?"

"Oh, Sheila again!" said the old woman in a tone of vexation. "I can't
imagine what there is in that girl to make men rave so about her. That
Jew-boy is become a thorough nuisance: you would fancy she had just
stepped down out of the clouds to present him with a gold harp, and that
he couldn't look up to her face. And you are just as bad. You are worse,
for you don't blow it off in steam. Well, there need be no difficulty. I
meant to leave the girl in your charge. You take the money and look
after her: I know she won't starve. Take it in trust for her, if you
like."

"But that is a fearful responsibility, Mrs. Lavender," he said in
dismay. "She is a married woman. Her husband is the proper person--"

"I tell you I won't give him a farthing!" she said with a sudden
sharpness that startled him--"not a farthing! If he wants money, let him
work for it, as other people do; and then, when he has done that, if he
is to have any of my money, he must be beholden for it to his wife and
to you."

"Do you think that Sheila would accept anything that she would not
immediately hand over to him?"

"Then he must come first to you."

"I hav