ubts, however absolute her love; and perhaps it is just as rare for
a man to credit in his heart all the praises he speaks of his beloved.
Passion is compatible with a great many of these imperfections of
intellectual esteem. To see more clearly into Jasper's personality was,
for Marian, to suffer the more intolerable dread lest she should lose
him.

She went to his side. Her heart ached because, in her great misery, he
had not fondled her, and intoxicated her senses with loving words.

'How can I make you feel how much I love you?' she murmured.

'You mustn't be so literal, dearest. Women are so desperately
matter-of-fact; it comes out even in their love-talk.'

Marian was not without perception of the irony of such an opinion on
Jasper's lips.

'I am content for you to think so,' she said. 'There is only one fact in
my life of any importance, and I can never lose sight of it.'

'Well now, we are quite sure of each other. Tell me plainly, do you
think me capable of forsaking you because you have perhaps lost your
money?'

The question made her wince. If delicacy had held her tongue, it had no
control of HIS.

'How can I answer that better,' she said, 'than by saying I love you?'

It was no answer, and Jasper, though obtuse compared with her,
understood that it was none. But the emotion which had prompted his
words was genuine enough. Her touch, the perfume of her passion, had
their exalting effect upon him. He felt in all sincerity that to forsake
her would be a baseness, revenged by the loss of such a wife.

'There's an uphill fight before me, that's all,' he said, 'instead of
the pretty smooth course I have been looking forward to. But I don't
fear it, Marian. I'm not the fellow to be beaten.

You shall be my wife, and you shall have as many luxuries as if you had
brought me a fortune.'

'Luxuries! Oh, how childish you seem to think me!'

'Not a bit of it. Luxuries are a most important part of life. I had
rather not live at all than never possess them. Let me give you a useful
hint; if ever I seem to you to flag, just remind me of the difference
between these lodgings and a richly furnished house. Just hint to me
that So-and-so, the journalist, goes about in his carriage, and can give
his wife a box at the theatre. Just ask me, casually, how I should
like to run over to the Riviera when London fogs are thickest. You
understand? That's the way to keep me at it like a steam-engine.'

'You are right. Al