s, then kissed her eagerly several times.

"Where have you come from?" he repeated. "My God! to think I was walking
to meet you in such a calm fashion this evening."

"You never were very calm, Loftie, nor was I. Feel my heart--I am almost
in a tempest of joy at meeting you again. I knew you'd be glad. You
couldn't help yourself."

"I'm glad and I'm sorry. You know you intoxicate me, witch--I thought I
had got over that old affair. What: don't flash your eyes at me. Oh,
yes, Nina, I am glad, I am delighted to see you once again."

"And to kiss me, and love me again?"

"Yes, to kiss you and love you again."

"How soon will you marry me, Loftie?"

"We needn't talk about that to-night. Tell me why you have come, and
how. Where is your grandfather? Do you still sing in the streets for a
living?"

"Hush, you insult me. I am a rich girl now."

"You rich? What a joke!"

"No, it is a reality. Riches go by comparison, and Josephine Hart has an
income--therefore she is rich compared to the Josephine who had none.
When will you marry me, Loftie?"

"Little puss! We'll talk of that another day."

He stroked her cheek, put his arm around her waist and kissed her many
times.

"You have not told me yet why you came here," he said.

She laughed.

"I came here because my own sweet will directed me. I have taken rooms
here at this lodge. The man called Tester and his wife will attend on
me."

"Good gracious! at my mother's very gates Is that wise, Nina."

"Wise or unwise I have done it."

"To be near me?"

"Partly."

"Nina, you half frighten me. You are not going to do me an injury? It
will prejudice my mother seriously if she finds out my--my--"

"Your love for me," finished Josephine.

"Yes."

"Why will it prejudice her?"

"Need I--must I tell you? My mother is proud; she--she would almost
disown me if I made a _mesalliance_."

Nina flung back her head.

"You talk like a boy," she said. "When you marry me you save, not
degrade, yourself. Ah, I know a secret. Such a secret! Such a blessed,
blessed, happy secret for me. It is turning me into a good girl. It
causes my heart to sing. When I think of it I revel in delight; when I
think of it I could dance: when I remember it I could shout with
exultation."

"Nina, what do you mean?"

"Nothing that you must know. I rejoice in my secret because it brings me
to you, and you to me. You degrade yourself by marrying me? You'll say
something else some day. No