u like." Here followed a most
business-like and lucid statement of his affairs, and the
ending--"Please do not keep me waiting long for a reply, and
let me know if I am to interview your grandmother. I am sure
I can satisfy her in regard to my position and
antecedents.--Yours devotedly,

"R. ERNEST BRESLAW."

He was honest. Not fearing that his income might tempt a girl of
Dawn's or indeed any other's station, he had in no way attempted to
test her affection ere mentioning it. After the manner of his
type--one of the best--he would place complete reliance where he
loved, and feel sure of the same in return.

"Good heavens! has he really all that money?" she exclaimed.

"So I believe."

"I'd be able to live the life I want, then. Learn to sing, have lovely
dresses, and travel about. I'm not thinking only of his money, but
don't you think people who marry on nothing are fools and selfish? A
woman who marries a man who is only able to keep her and her children
in starvation is a fool, and a man who wants a woman to suffer what
wives have to, and drudge in poverty, is a selfish brute--that's what
I've always thought. As for gassing about love when there's no comfort
to keep it alive, that's about as foundationless as we, always being
supposed to think men our superiors, even the ones a blind idiot could
see are inferior."

"Are you going to marry him?"

"I want to, but what on earth am I to do with 'Dora' Eweword?"

"Break his heart to keep Ernest's together?"

"Break _his_ heart! It's the style to break, isn't it? He can have
Dora Cowper or Ada Grosvenor, they both want him. If grandma got wind
of the situation though, she'd put my pot on properly. She'd carry on
like fury, and let me have neither of them--that would be the end of
it. I can't make out why I fooled with that 'Dora' at all. I'll write
and ask Ernest to give me a week;" and with her characteristic
promptitude she sat down, and favoured a style as unadorned as that of
the knight himself.

"DEAR MR ERNEST,--Your letter received. I care for you, but
cannot give you a definite answer at once. There may be
obstacles in the way of accepting your kind offer; if you
will give me a week to consider matters, I will answer you
definitely then.--Yours with love,

DAWN."

As she got into bed she said with a happy giggle, "He says he loved
me from the first day he saw me, and you thought he only c