d I
am very strong. My hands ought to be of some use to me, if my brain is
not."

"Your brain is strong enough, and your will is strong enough for
anything, but your hands----"

"Are they to be useless?"

"Yes, they are to be useless," he said, "and somebody else must work for
you."

"That arrangement would not suit me. I like to work for myself," she
answered, smiling.

They were standing on opposite sides of a small table on which the
portfolio of drawings rested. Percival was holding up one side of the
portfolio, and she was placing the sketches one by one upon each other.

"Do you know what you look like?" said Percival, suddenly. There was a
thrill of pleasurable excitement in his tone, a glow of ardour in his
dark eyes. "You look like a tall, white lily to-night, with your white
dress and your gleaming hair. The pure white of the petals and the
golden heart of the lily have found their match."

"I am recompensed for the trouble I took in changing my dress this
evening," said Elizabeth, glancing down at it complacently. "I did not
expect that it would bring me so poetic a compliment. Thank you,
Percival."

"'Consider the lilies; they toil not, neither do they spin,'" quoted
Percival, recklessly. "Why should you toil and spin?--a more beautiful
lily than any one of them. If Solomon in all his glory was not equal to
those Judean lilies, then I may safely say that the Queen of Sheba would
be beaten outright by our Queen Elizabeth, with her white dress and her
golden locks!"

"Mrs. Heron would say you were profane," said Elizabeth, tranquilly.
"These comparisons of yours don't please me exactly, Percival; they
always remind me of the flowery leaders in some of the evening papers,
and make me remember that you are a journalist. They have a professional
air."

"A professional air!" repeated Percival, in disgust. He let the lid of
the portfolio fall with a bang upon the table. Several of the sketches
flew wildly over the floor, and Elizabeth turned to him with a
reproachful look, but she had no time to protest, for in that moment he
had seized her hands and drawn her aside with him to a sofa that stood
on one side of the room.

"You shall not answer me in that way," he said, half-irritated,
half-amused, and wholly determined to have his way. "You shall sit down
there and listen to me in a serious spirit, if you can. No, don't shake
your head and look at me so mockingly. It is time that we understood
each