ng to work for your
own profit?'

'At least I might claim half the money I can earn. And I was thinking
more of--'

'Of what?'

'When I am your wife, I may be able to help. I could earn thirty or
forty pounds a year, I think. That would pay the rent of a small house.'

She spoke with shaken voice, her eyes fixed upon his face.

'But, my dear Marian, we surely oughtn't to think of marrying so long as
expenses are so nicely fitted as all that?'

'No. I only meant--'

She faltered, and her tongue became silent as her heart sank.

'It simply means,' pursued Jasper, seating himself and crossing his
legs, 'that I must move heaven and earth to improve my position. You
know that my faith in myself is not small; there's no knowing what I
might do if I used every effort. But, upon my word, I don't see much
hope of our being able to marry for a year or two under the most
favourable circumstances.'

'No; I quite understand that.'

'Can you promise to keep a little love for me all that time?' he asked
with a constrained smile.

'You know me too well to fear.'

'I thought you seemed a little doubtful.'

His tone was not altogether that which makes banter pleasant between
lovers. Marian looked at him fearfully. Was it possible for him in truth
so to misunderstand her? He had never satisfied her heart's desire of
infinite love; she never spoke with him but she was oppressed with the
suspicion that his love was not as great as hers, and, worse still, that
he did not wholly comprehend the self-surrender which she strove to make
plain in every word.

'You don't say that seriously, Jasper?'

'But answer seriously.'

'How can you doubt that I would wait faithfully for you for years if it
were necessary?'

'It mustn't be years, that's very certain. I think it preposterous for a
man to hold a woman bound in that hopeless way.'

'But what question is there of holding me bound? Is love dependent on
fixed engagements? Do you feel that, if we agreed to part, your love
would be at once a thing of the past?'

'Why no, of course not.'

'Oh, but how coldly you speak, Jasper!'

She could not breathe a word which might be interpreted as fear lest
the change of her circumstances should make a change in his feeling.
Yet that was in her mind. The existence of such a fear meant, of
course, that she did not entirely trust him, and viewed his character as
something less than noble. Very seldom indeed is a woman free from such
do