y on my nationality,--nationality and blood. As to my condition
in the world, fortune, or income, he never asked a word. That was
strange."

"I suppose he thought he knew."

"He could not have thought he knew, dearest. But it was not for me to
force the subject upon him. You can see that."

"I am sure whatever you did was right, Ferdinand."

"He is indisputably a rich man,--one who might be supposed to be able
and willing to give an only daughter a considerable fortune. Now I
certainly had never thought of marrying for money." Here she rubbed
her face upon his arm. "I felt that it was not for me to speak of
money. If he chose to be reticent, I could be so equally. Had he
asked me, I should have told him that I had no fortune, but was
making a large though precarious income. It would then be for him
to declare what he intended to do. That would, I think, have been
preferable. As it is we are all in doubt. In my position a knowledge
of what your father intends to do would be most valuable to me."

"Should you not ask him?"

"I believe there has always been a perfect confidence between you and
him?"

"Certainly,--as to all our ways of living. But he never said a word
to me about money in his life."

"And yet, my darling, money is most important."

"Of course it is. I know that, Ferdinand."

"Would you mind asking?" She did not answer him at once, but sat
thinking. And he also paused before he went on with his lesson.
But, in order that the lesson should be efficacious, it would be as
well that he should tell her as much as he could even at this first
lecture. "To tell you the truth, this is quite essential to me at
present,--very much more than I had thought it would be when we fixed
the day for our marriage." Her mind within her recoiled at this,
though she was very careful that he should not feel any such motion
in her body. "My business is precarious."

"What is your business, Ferdinand?" Poor girl! That she should have
been allowed to marry a man, and then have to ask such a question!

"It is generally commercial. I buy and sell on speculation. The
world, which is shy of new words, has not yet given it a name. I am
a good deal at present in the South American trade." She listened,
but received no glimmering of an idea from his words. "When we were
engaged everything was as bright as roses with me."

"Why did you not tell me this before,--so that we might have been
more prudent?"

"Such prudence would