I do my
best to follow his example. I'm ashamed almost, sometimes, to think I
shall be his wife. It ought to be some one better than me.'

'Where would he find any one better, I'd like to know? Let him come and
ask me about that! There's no man good enough for you, sister Emmy.'

Richard was talking with his sister Alice; the others had gone to bed,
and the house was quiet.

'I wasn't at all pleased to see that man here to-night,' he said. 'You
shouldn't have been so ready to say yes when he asked you to go to the
theatre. It was like his impudence!'

'Why, what ever's the harm, Dick? Besides, we must have some friends,
and--really he looks a gentleman.'

I'll tell you a secret,' returned her brother, with a half-smile,
half-sneer. 'You don't know a gentleman yet, and you'll have to be very
careful till you do.'

'How am I to learn, then?'

'Just wait. You've got enough to do with your music and your reading.
Time enough for getting acquainted with gentlemen.'

'Aren't you going to let anybody come and see us, then?'

'You have the old friends,' replied Richard, raising his chin.

'You're thinking of Mr. Dabbs, I suppose. What did he want to see you
for, Dick?'

Alice looked at him from the corner of her eye.

'I think I'll tell you. He says he doesn't intend to come here again.
You've made him feel uncomfortable.'

The girl laughed.

'I can't help how he feels, can I? At all events, Mr. Dabbs isn't a
gentleman, is he, now?'

'He's an honest man, and that's saying a good deal, let me tell you. I
rather thought you liked him.'

'Liked him? Oh, in a way, of course. But things are different.'

'How different?'

Alice looked up, put her head on one side, smiled her prettiest, and
asked--

'Is it true, what 'Arry says--about the money?'

He had wanted to get at this, and was, on the whole, not sorry to hear
it. Richard was studying the derivation of virtue from necessity.

'What if it is?' he asked.

'Well, it makes things more different even than I thought, that's all.'

She sprang to her feet and danced across the room, one hand bent over
her head. It was not an ungraceful picture. Her brother smiled.

'Alice, you'd better be guided by me. I know a little of the world, and
I can help you where you'd make mistakes. Just keep to yourself for a
little, my girl, and get on with your piano and your books. You can't do
better, believe me. Never mind whether you've any one to see you or not;
there