"In what light?" queried Helmsley, gently.

"As a lover,"--replied Angus--"She's given up thinking of lovers."

Helmsley leaned back in his chair, and clasping his hands together so
that the tips of his fingers met, looked over them in almost the same
meditative businesslike way as he had looked at Lucy Sorrel when he had
questioned her as to her ideas of her future.

"Well, naturally she has,"--he answered--"Lovers have given up thinking
of _her_!"

"I hope they have!" said Angus, fervently--"I hope I have no rivals! For
my love for her is a jealous love, David! I must be all in all to her,
or nothing! I must be the very breath of her breath, the life of her
life! I must!--or I am no use to her. And I want to be of use. I want to
work for her, to look upon her as the central point of all my
actions--the very core of ambition and endeavour,--so that everything I
do may be well done enough to meet with her praise. If she does not like
it, it will be worthless. For her soul is as pure as the sunlight and as
full of great depths as the sea! Simplest and sweetest of women as she
is, she has enough of God in her to make a man live up to the best that
is in him!"

His voice thrilled with passion as he spoke--and Helmsley felt a strange
contraction at his heart--a pang of sharp memory, desire and regret all
in one, which moved him to a sense of yearning for this love which he
had never known--this divine and wonderful emotion whose power could so
transform a man as to make him seem a very king among men. For so Angus
Reay looked just now, with his eyes flashing unutterable tenderness, and
his whole aspect expressive of a great hope born of a great ideal. But
he restrained the feeling that threatened to over-master him, and merely
said very quietly, and with a smile--

"I see you are very much in love with her, Mr. Reay!"

"In love?" Angus laughed--"No, my dear old David! I'm not a bit 'in
love.' I love her! That's love with a difference. But you know how it is
with me. I haven't a penny in the world but just what I told you must
last me for a year--and I don't know when I shall make any more. So that
I wouldn't be such a cad as to speak to her about it yet. But--if I
could only get a little hope,--if I could just find out whether she
liked me a little, that would give me more energy in my work, don't you
see? And that's where you could help me, David!"

Helmsley smiled ever so slightly.

"Tell me how,"--he said.

"