week, and then, putting his arm round her waist, he said: 'You have
always been a good little woman to me.'

_Walter Besant_

THE SOLID GOLD REEF COMPANY, LIMITED

(_In Deacon's Orders and Other Stories_, New York: Harper and Bros.,
1895)

Act I

'You dear old boy,' said the girl, 'I am sure I wish it could be, with
all my heart, if I have any heart.'

'I don't believe you have,' replied the boy gloomily.

'Well, but, Reg, consider; you've got no money.'

'I've got five thousand pounds. If a man can't make his way upon that
he must be a poor stick.'

'You would go abroad with it and dig, and take your wife with you--to
wash and cook.'

'We would do something with the money here. You should stay in London,
Rosie.'

'Yes. In a suburban villa, at Shepherd's Bush, perhaps. No, Reg, when
I marry, if ever I do--I am in no hurry--I will step out of this room
into one exactly like it.' The room was a splendid drawing-room in
Palace Gardens, splendidly furnished. 'I shall have my footmen and my
carriage, and I shall--'

'Rosie, give me the right to earn all these things for you!' the young
man cried impetuously.

'You can only earn them for me by the time you have one foot in the
grave. Hadn't I better in the meantime marry some old gentleman with
his one foot in the grave, so as to be ready for you against the time
you come home? In two or three years the other foot, I dare say, would
slide into the grave as well.'

'You laugh at my trouble. You feel nothing.'

'If the pater would part, but he won't; he says he wants all his money
for himself, and that I've got to marry well. Besides, Reg'--here her
face clouded and she lowered her voice--'there are times when he looks
anxious. We didn't always live in Palace Gardens. Suppose we should
lose it all as quickly as we got it. Oh!' she shivered and trembled.
'No, I will never, never marry a poor man. Get rich, my dear boy,
and you may aspire even to the valuable possession of this heartless
hand.'

She held it out. He took it, pressed it, stooped and kissed her. Then
he dropped her hand and walked quickly out of the room.

'Poor Reggie!' she murmured. 'I wish--I wish--but what is the use of
wishing?'

Act II

Two men--one young, the other about fifty--sat in the veranda of a
small bungalow. It was after breakfast. They lay back in long bamboo
chairs, each with a cigar. It looked as if they were resting. In
reality they were talking busines