you said so!"

She was silent, carefully piling one or two small logs on the fire.

"Dear sweet little girls are generally uncommonly vain of themselves,"
resumed Helmsley--"And in the strength of their dearness and sweetness
they sometimes fail to appreciate love when they get it. Now Mr. Reay
would love very deeply, I should imagine--and I don't think he could
bear to be played with or slighted."

"But who would play with or slight such love as his?" asked Mary, with a
warm flush on her face--"No woman that knew anything of his heart would
wilfully throw it away!"

Helmsley stroked his beard thoughtfully.

"That story of his about a girl named Lucy Sorrel,"--he began.

"Oh, she was wicked--downright wicked!" declared Mary, with some
passion--"Any girl who would plan and scheme to marry an old man for his
money must be a worthless creature. I wish I had been in that Lucy
Sorrel's place!"

"Ah! And what would you have done?" enquired Helmsley.

"Well, if I had been a pretty girl, in my teens, and I had been
fortunate enough to win the heart of a splendid fellow like Angus
Reay,"--said Mary, "I would have thanked God, as Shakespeare tells us to
do, for a good man's love! And I would have waited for him years, if he
had wished me to! I would have helped him all I could, and cheered him
and encouraged him in every way I could think of--and when he had won
his fame, I should have been prouder than a queen! Yes, I should!--I
think any girl would have been lucky indeed to get such a man to care
for her as Angus Reay!"

Thus spake Mary, with sparkling eyes and heaving bosom--and Helmsley
heard her, showing no sign of any especial interest, the while he went
on meditatively stroking his beard.

"It is a pity,"--he said, after a discreet pause--"that you are not a
few years younger, Mary! You might have loved him yourself."

Her face grew suddenly scarlet, and she seemed about to utter an
exclamation, but she repressed it. The colour faded from her cheeks as
rapidly as it had flushed them, leaving her very pale.

"So I might!" she answered quietly,--and she smiled; "Indeed I think it
would have been very likely! But that sort of thing is all over for me."

She turned away, and began busying herself with some of her household
duties. Helmsley judged that he had said enough--and quietly exulted in
his own mind at the discovery which he was confident he had made. All
seemed clear and open sailing for Angus Reay--if--