letters. I'm sure we've quite
enough anxiety from him; I don't see why you should increase it."

Without otherwise moving, he put his arm about her.

"What is it, Clifford? Tell me, and be quick."

"It's soon told, Mad. My step-father informs me that he will continue
the usual allowance until my twenty-sixth birthday--eighteenth of
February next, you know--and no longer than that. After then, I must
look out for myself."

Madeline wrinkled her brows.

"What's the reason?" she asked, after a pause.

"The old trouble. He says I've had quite long enough to make my way as
an artist, if I'm going to make it at all. In his opinion, I am simply
wasting my time and his money. No cash results; that is to say, no
success. Of course, his view."

The girl kept silence. Marsh shifted his position slightly, so as to
get a view of her face.

"Somebody else's too, I'm half afraid," he murmured dubiously.

Madeline was thinking of a look she had caught on Miss Doran's face
when the portfolio disclosed its contents; of Miss Doran's silence; of
certain other person' looks and silence--or worse than silence. The
knitting of her brows became deeper; Marsh felt an uneasy movement in
her frame.

"Speak plainly," he said. "It's far better."

"It's very hot, Clifford. Sit on a chair; we can talk better."

"I understand."

He moved a little away from her, and looked round the room with a smile
of disillusion.

"You needn't insult me," said Madeline, but not with the former
petulance; "Often enough you have done that, and yet I don't think I
have given you cause."

Still crouching upon the stool, he clasped his hands over his knee,
jerked his head back--a frequent movement, to settle his hair--and
smiled with increase of bitterness.

"I meant no insult," he said, "either now or at other times, though you
are always ready to interpret me in that way. I merely hint at the
truth, which would sound disagreeable in plain terms."

"You mean, of course, that I think of nothing--have never thought of
anything--but your material prospects?"

"Why didn't you marry me a year ago, Mad?"

"Because I should have been mad indeed to have done so. You admit it
would have caused your step-father at once to stop his allowance. And
pray what would have become of us?"

"Exactly. See your faith in me, brought to the touchstone!"

"I suppose the present day would have seen you as it now does?"

"Yes, if you had embarrassed me with lack of c