iving it to me but I would not take it. Why do you look at me so
strangely, Neil? Do you think I have committed the unpardonable sin?"

"Bessie," Neil began, huskily, and in a voice choked with passion, "this
is the drop too much. I knew you had some low instincts, but never
dreamed you could stoop to this degradation, which affects me as much as
it does you. But it is not too late to change, and you must do it."

"No, Neil, I cannot. I have barely enough to get there as it is," she
replied, and he continued:

"Mother sent you five pounds with her compliments. Will that do? Here it
is," and he offered her the note, which she put aside quickly, as she
said:

"I cannot take that from your mother. Give it back to her, and, if you
think she meant it well, thank her for me, and tell her I shall pay the
whole some day when I earn it."

She emphasized the last words, and, more angry than before, Neil
exclaimed:

"Earn it! Why will you persist in such nonsense, as if you were a common
char-woman? You know as well as I that you are going to Aunt Betsey with
the hope to get some of her money, as you unquestionably will."

"Neil, I am not," Bessie answered, firmly. "I am going to America,
because there I can work and be respected, too, while here, according to
your code, I cannot."

"Then, for Heaven's sake, go decently, and not herd with a lot of
cattle, for emigrants are little better; and do not make yourself a
spectacle for the other passengers to gaze upon and wonder about, as
they will be sure to do. If you have no pride for yourself, you have no
right to disgrace me. How do you think it will sound, some day, that
Neil McPherson's wife went out as steerage? Have you no feeling about
it?"

"Not in that way--no," Bessie replied. "It seems to me I have been in
the steerage all my life, and this can be no worse. Lady Bothwaite went
thus to Australia to see how it fared with the passengers."

"Yes, and got herself well laughed at as a lunatic," Neil rejoined.
Then, after a pause, he continued, excitedly: "But to come to the
point--you must either give up this crazy plan or me. I can have no
share in this disgrace, which the world would never forget, and which
mother would never forgive. My wife must not come from the steerage."

He spoke with great decision, for he was very angry, and for a moment
there was perfect silence between them, while Bessie regarded him
fixedly, with an expression on her face which made him