tor Druce--inherits all?"

Jack looked at her with anxious eyes.

"You expected it, didn't you? You are not surprised? It seems to have
been generally taken for granted for the last six months."

"Yes; so Mrs Thornton said. If it had been anyone else I should not
grudge it so much. And you are left out too! I wish--oh, I wish it had
been different!"

Jack Melland took a step forward, and bent over her chair.

"Mollie," he said softly, "shall we console each other? I have been
waiting until this question was settled before coming to see you. It
seemed an endless time to wait, but I couldn't come till I knew the
truth. How could a poor fellow, with a few beggarly hundreds a year,
approach a girl who might be one of the biggest heiresses in the
kingdom? But I didn't forget you--I couldn't forget. I have been
thinking of you night and day. It was all the harder to be silent when
you were in trouble; but it was the straight thing to do. You can't
tell what it means to me to see you again! When you opened the door
just now, and the lamp-light showed me your little golden head--"

He broke off, with the same strange quiver in his voice which had marked
his first utterance of her name; but Mollie shrank back still further in
her chair, staring at him with troubled eyes.

"What do you mean? I don't understand!"

"It's simple enough--only that I love you, and want you to love me in
return!"

"But--don't you remember?--you told me about her--the girl you met, and
loved at first sight. Suppose you met her again, and felt the same;
then you would be sorry if I--"

"Oh, Mollie, do you mean to say you have remembered all this time, and
never guessed! It was yourself, darling; there never was anyone else!
I think I must have cared for you from the first, though I did not
realise it, for I was irritated that I could never get you to be
serious. You were like a child out for a holiday--full of fun and
mischief--and I wanted to talk of deeper things. Then one day for a
moment you showed me a glimpse of your real self--the sweet, womanly
heart that lay beneath the gaiety; and as I looked at your face I
recognised it, Mollie. It was something I had dreamed of when I did not
know I was dreaming, and wanted, without knowing what I wanted! I saw
that look again five minutes after I had told you of my lost love, as
you looked at me and wished me happiness. Why did you look sad, Mollie?
Were you--were you sorry a