but you
understand me. Find a nice girl--of course a _nice_ girl--with a
fortune large enough to put you back in your proper sphere; and it
doesn't matter about me. You will pay my rent, I dare say, and help
me through when I want it; but that's nothing. The point is, that I
cannot submit to your career being spoiled through your poor
father's mad imprudence. You must retrieve yourself--you _must_.
Nobody is anything nowadays in the world without money; you know
that as well as I do. And besides, there is another reason. You
have got to forget the affair of last spring, to put it entirely
behind you, to show that horrid woman who threw you over that you
will make your life a success in spite of her. Rouse yourself, my
dear Roger, and do your best. I hope by now you have forwarded
_all_ my introductions? You have your opportunity, and I must say
you will be a great fool if you don't use it. _Do_ use it my dear
boy, for my sake. I am a very unhappy woman; but you might, if you
would, bring back a little brightness to my life."

After he had read the letter, young Barnes sat for some time in a brown
study on the edge of his bed. The letter contained only one more
repetition of counsels that had been dinned into his ears for
months--almost ever since the financial crash which had followed his
father's death, and the crash of another sort, concerning himself, which
had come so quick upon it. His thoughts returned, as they always did at
some hour of the day or night, to the "horrid woman." Yes, that had hit
him hard; the lad's heart still throbbed with bitterness as he thought
of it. He had never felt anything so much; he didn't believe he should
ever mind anything so much again. "I'm not one of your sentimental
sort," he thought, half congratulating himself, half in self-contempt.
But he could not get her out of his head; he wondered if he ever should.
And it had gone pretty far too. By Jove! that night in the
orchard!--when she had kissed him, and thrown her arms round his neck!
And then to write him that letter, when things were at their worst. She
might have done the thing decently. Have treated a fellow kindly at
least. Well, of course, it was all done with. Yes, it _was_. Done with!

He got up and began to pace his small room, his hands in his pockets,
thinking of the night in the orchard. Then gradually the smart lessened,
and his thoughts