of her attachment for me."

"Oh, Lady Augusta!" said Griffith. "Confound Lady Augusta!"

Griffith was one of the very few people who did not like Ralph Gowan,
and perhaps charitably inclined persons will be half inclined to
excuse his weakness. It was rather trying, it must be admitted, for a
desponding young man rather under stress of weather, so to speak, to
find himself thrown into sharp contrast with an individual who had
sailed in smooth waters all his life, and to whom a ripple would have
been a by no means unpleasant excitement; it was rather chafing to
constantly encounter this favorite of fortune in the best of humors,
because he had nothing to irritate him; thoroughbred, unruffled, and
_debonnaire_ because he had nothing of pain or privation to face;
handsome, well dressed, and at ease, because his income and his tastes
balanced against each other accommodatingly. Human nature rose up
and battled in the Vagabondian breast; there were times when, for the
privilege of administering severe corporeal chastisement to Ralph
Gowan, Griffith would have sacrificed his modest salary with a Christian
fortitude and resignation beautiful to behold. To see him sitting in one
of the faded padded chairs, roused all his ire, and his consciousness of
his own weakness made the matter worse; to see him talking to Dolly, and
see her making brisk little jokes for his amusement, was worse still,
and drove him so frantic that more than once he had turned quite pale in
his secret frenzy of despair and jealousy, and had quite frightened the
girl, though he was wise enough to keep his secret to himself. It was
plain enough that Gowan admired Dolly, but other men had admired her
before; the sting of it was that this fellow, with his cool airs and
graces and tantalizing repose of manner, had no need to hold back if
he could win her. There would be no need for him to plan and pinch and
despair; no need for faltering over odd shillings and calculating odd
pence; _he_ could marry her in an hour if she cared for him, and he
could surround her with luxuries, and dress her like a queen, and make
her happy, as she deserved to be. And then the poor fellow's heart would
beat fiercely, and the very blood would tremble in his veins, at the
mere thought of giving her up.

One night after they had been sitting together, and Gowan had just left
the room with Phil, Dolly glanced up from her work and saw her lover
looking at her with a face so pale and