round. I must go away, I
cannot stay here any longer. Something has happened which compels me to
get my own living."

"Oh, impossible!" Alice cried.

"My dear, don't you know that it is the unexpected that happens? Well,
in my case, it has. If anybody had told me this a couple of months ago I
should have laughed the idea to scorn. It would have been incredible
that my father should threaten to turn me out of the house. Hitherto we
have been the best of friends, and I have regarded him as one of the
most upright and most honourable of men. I have always prided myself
upon the fact that nothing could rob us of our good name; but I was
mistaken, Alice. Actually this place does not belong to us at all. My
father is a mere lodger, dependent upon the good will of Mr. Raymond
Copley, who can turn us out at any moment. Moreover, he has compelled my
father to do a thing that I blush to mention. Do you know why Mr. Copley
has brought all this about?"

"I think I can guess," Alice said. "He is anxious to marry you. Am I not
right?"

"You have guessed it," May exclaimed. "You have saved me the humiliation
of telling you that. Mr. Copley can't say he has bought me. But he has
bought my father, and it comes to this, that unless I consent to be
Raymond Copley's wife I am to consider this my home no longer. These
were my father's very words. I suppose he chose them because they
sounded best. But it is as if he had told me to go. I couldn't marry
that man; nothing would induce me to do so. There is worse behind--there
is a conspiracy on foot which I overheard in the library just now. You
must not ask me to tell you what it is. My tongue would refuse to tell
it. Well, it is the last straw. I couldn't be more miserable than I have
been the last week or so. I cannot stay any longer. I have little or no
money, but I have my mother's jewels which ought to fetch at least a
thousand pounds. I propose to go to London and look about for something
to do. I want to come to you because we are such friends, and because I
know you will sympathize with me. We can live very cheaply together and
I will pay you for all I have, and before your father returns I shall
probably have found work. You won't refuse, will you?"

"How can you think such a thing?" Alice said reproachfully. "There is
nothing I would not do for you, and I know we shall be perfectly happy
together. It would be worse than death to marry a man like Mr. Copley.
I don't know why it