What she had borne during the last few
days had turned her gentleness into bitterness and anger. Thus it was,
with a curious dispassionate interest she would have been incapable of
under different circumstances, she continued to try the man, realizing
that though it was no doubt unpleasant to him, there was one great
reason which precluded the possibility of his suffering as he would
otherwise have done.

"But you are going to live in the city now," she said.

"Yes," said Alton gravely. "That is why I want you more. You see I
know so little, and there is so much you could teach me. I want
somebody to lead me where I could not otherwise go, though I know it is
asking a great deal while I can give so little."

This, the girl realized, was, though somewhat impersonal, wholly
genuine. The tone of chivalrous respect rang true, and she could
comprehend the half-instinctive straining after an ideal by one whose
belief in her sex was, if slightly crude, almost reverential. It
touched her, though she knew that to benefit him it could only be
offered to one woman, and she was not that one.

"And that is all?" she said.

"Of course!" said Alton too decisively, because he remembered, as Miss
Townshead quite realized, that the other reason must always remain
hidden. This was also as balm to her pride, and there was a trace of a
smile in her eyes.

"It is, as you appear to understand, very little."

"Well," said Alton, who seemed to take courage, "now when I see your
meaning there is a trifle more."

Again he moved a pace, and the girl fancied he would have laid his hand
upon her shoulder. "No," she said decisively.

Alton sighed, and his face became impassive, but it seemed to the girl
that there was relief in it.

"I think I could be kind to you and make things smooth for you," he
said very simply. "I should always look up to you, and I wouldn't ask
for very much--only to see you happy."

He stopped apparently for inspiration, and Nellie Townshead smiled a
little. "Do you think that last was wise?"

Alton turned towards her with a little glint in his eyes, and the girl,
who knew his temperament, felt that she had gone far enough. He had
borne it very well, and it seemed to her that other men might have
handled the situation, which was difficult, less delicately.

"I asked you a question, and it seems to me that it still waits an
answer."

The girl rose and stood looking at him with a little colour in