I am going too far--"

"Not at all!" Dyce exclaimed, eagerly. "It is a question you have a
perfect right to ask. But I thought you knew I had _no_ private means."

"No, I wasn't aware of that," Constance replied, in a voice of studious
civility. "Then how do you propose--?"

Their eyes encountered. Constance did not for an instant lose her
self-command; Lashmar's efforts to be calm only made his embarrassment
more obvious.

"I had a small allowance from my father till lately," he said. "But
that has come to an end. It never occurred to me that you misunderstood
my position. Surely I have more than once hinted to you how poor I was?
I had no intention of misleading you. Lady Ogram certainly knew----"

"She knew you were not wealthy, but she thought you had a competence. I
told her so, when she questioned me. It was a mistake, I see, but a
very natural one."

"Does it matter, now?" asked Dyce, his lips again curling amiably.

"I should suppose it mattered much. How shall you live?"

"Let us understand each other. Do you withdraw your consent to Lady
Ogram's last wish?"

"That wish, as you see, was founded on a misunderstanding."

"But," exclaimed Lashmar, "you are not speaking seriously?"

"Quite. Lady Ogram certainly never intended the money she had left in
trust to me to be used for your private needs. Reflect a moment, and
you will see how impossible it would be for me to apply the money in
such a way."

"Reflection," said Dyce, with unnatural quietness, "would only increase
my astonishment at your ingenuity. It would have been much simpler and
better to say at once that you had changed your mind. Can you for a
moment expect me to believe that this argument really justifies you in
breaking your promise?"

"I assure you," replied Constance, also in a soft undertone, "it is
much sounder reasoning than that by which you excuse your philosophical
plagiarism."

Lashmar's eyes wandered. They fell upon the marble bust; its disdainful
smile seemed to him more pronounced than ever.

"Then," he cried, on an impulse of desperation, "you really mean to
take Lady Ogram's money, and to disregard the very condition on which
she left it to you?"

"You forget that her will was made before she had heard your name."

He sat in silence, a gloomy resentment lowering on his features. After
a glance at him, Constance began to speak in a calm, reasonable voice.

"It is my turn to confess. I, too, seem to myself to have