e's income is so small that the match is one that Mary's
friends cannot approve."

"I don't think much of money," he said.

"Still it is essential to comfort, Mr. Gilmore."

"What I mean to say is, that I am the last man in the world to insist
upon that kind of thing, or to appear to triumph because my income is
larger than another man's." Miss Marrable was now quite sure that Mr.
Gilmore was a gentleman. "But if the match is to be broken off--"

"I cannot say that it will be broken off."

"But it may be?"

"Certainly it is possible. There are difficulties which may
necessarily separate them."

"If it be so, my feelings will be the same as they have always been
since I first knew her. That is all that I have got to say."

Then she told him pretty nearly everything. She said nothing of the
money which Walter Marrable would have inherited had it not been for
Colonel Marrable's iniquity; but she did tell him that the young
people would have no income except the Captain's pay, and poor Mary's
little fifty pounds a-year; and she went on to explain that, as
far as she was concerned, and as far as her cousin the clergyman
was concerned, everything would be done to prevent a marriage so
disastrous as that in question, and the prospect of a life with so
little of allurement as that of the wife of a poor soldier in India.
At the same time she bade him remember that Mary Lowther was a girl
very apt to follow her own judgment, and that she was for the present
absolutely devoted to her cousin. "I think it will be broken off,"
she said. "That is my opinion. I don't think it can go on. But it is
he that will do it; and for a time she will suffer greatly."

"Then I will wait," said Mr. Gilmore. "I will go home, and wait
again. If there be a chance, I can live and hope."

"God grant that you may not hope in vain!"

"I would do my best to make her happy. I will leave you now, and am
very thankful for your kindness. There would be no good in my seeing
Mary?"

"I think not, Mr. Gilmore."

"I suppose not. She would only feel that I was teasing her. You will
not tell her of my being here, I suppose?"

"It would do no good, I think."

"None in the least. I'll just go home and wait. If there should be
anything to tell me--"

"If the match be broken off, I will take care that you shall hear it.
I will write to Janet Fenwick. I know that she is your friend."

Then Mr. Gilmore left the house, descended the hill without seein