rely there's no harm in my saying--' he paused in astonishment.
'I meant nothing that could offend you.'

'I know you didn't, Jasper. But you make me think that--'

'Don't be so literal again, my dear girl. Come here and forgive me.'

She did not approach, but only because the painful thought he had
excited kept her to that spot.

'Come, Marian! Then I must come to you.'

He did so and held her in his arms.

'Try your hand at a novel, dear, if you can possibly make time. Put me
in it, if you like, and make me an insensible masculine. The experiment
is worth a try I'm certain. At all events do a few chapters, and let
me see them. A chapter needn't take you more than a couple of hours I
should think.'

Marian refrained from giving any promise. She seemed irresponsive to
his caresses. That thought which at times gives trouble to all women of
strong emotions was working in her: had she been too demonstrative, and
made her love too cheap? Now that Jasper's love might be endangered, it
behoved her to use any arts which nature prompted. And so, for once, he
was not wholly satisfied with her, and at their parting he wondered what
subtle change had affected her manner to him.

'Why didn't Marian come to speak a word?' said Dora, when her brother
entered the girls' sitting-room about ten o'clock.

'You knew she was with me, then?'

'We heard her voice as she was going away.'

'She brought me some enspiriting news, and thought it better I should
have the reporting of it to you.'

With brevity he made known what had befallen.

'Cheerful, isn't it? The kind of thing that strengthens one's trust in
Providence.'

The girls were appalled. Maud, who was reading by the fireside, let her
book fall to her lap, and knit her brows darkly.

'Then your marriage must be put off, of course?' said Dora.

'Well, I shouldn't be surprised if that were found necessary,' replied
her brother caustically. He was able now to give vent to the feeling
which in Marian's presence was suppressed, partly out of consideration
for her, and partly owing to her influence.

'And shall we have to go back to our old lodgings again?' inquired Maud.

Jasper gave no answer, but kicked a footstool savagely out of his way
and paced the room.

'Oh, do you think we need?' said Dora, with unusual protest against
economy.

'Remember that it's a matter for your own consideration,' Jasper replied
at length. 'You are living on your own resources, you kno