ted her steps, and
leaning against the side of the door, she heard all their conversation,
and knew the bitterness there was in Neil's heart toward her mother,
less by what he said, than by the tone of his voice as he said it, for
there was in it a cold, hard ring which made her shiver and sent her
back to the bed she had quitted, where she lay for hours, until she had
thought it out and knew what she meant to do. But she said nothing of
her decision either to Neil or Flossie, the latter of whom left her the
next day to join her grandmother, in London.

Neil waited a few days longer, loath to leave Bessie and dreading to go
home and meet what he knew he must meet when he told his mother the
amount of her indebtedness to Mrs. Meredith, who had signified her wish
to be paid as soon as possible.

Naturally dull of perception as he was, Neil was vaguely conscious of a
change in Bessie's manner, but he attributed it to grief for the loss of
her mother, wondering a little that she could mourn so deeply, a death,
which, to him, seemed a relief, for Daisy was not a person whom he would
care to acknowledge as his mother-in-law.

Bessie could not forget the words she had overheard, and though they
might be true, she knew Neil ought not to have spoken them to a
comparative stranger, and she began to realize, as she never had before,
that in Neil's nature there was much which did not accord with hers.
Many and many a time thoughts of Grey Jerrold filled her mind, and in
her half-waking hours at night, she heard again his voice, so full of
sympathy, and felt an inexpressible longing to see him again, and hear
him speak to her. Still, she meant to be loyal to Neil, and on the
morning of his departure, when he was deploring his inability to marry
her at once, she lifted her sad eyes to him and said:

"Is there nothing you can do to help yourself? I will do my part gladly,
and it cannot cost us much to live--just us two."

The next moment her face was crimson, as she reflected that what she had
said, seemed like begging Neil to marry her, and his answer was not very
reassuring.

"There is _nothing_ for me to do; absolutely nothing."

"Don't other men find employment if they want it?" Bessie asked, and he
replied:

"Yes, if they want it; but I do not. You know as well as I the prejudice
among people of my rank against clerkships, and trade, and the like. As
a rule the McPhersons do not work."

"But I am not ashamed to work, a