s of deep thought, he said, "I am going to make the venture
now, Dolly. I am called away to London by telegraph, and am to leave
to-morrow morning."

"Are you fully prepared, Tony, for the examination?"

"Luckily for me, they do not require it Some accidental want of people
has made them call in all the available fellows at a moment's warning,
and in this way I may chance to slip into the service unchallenged."

"Nay, but, Tony," said she, reproachfully, "you surely could face the
examination?"

"I could face it just as I could face being shot at, of course, but with
the same certainty of being bowled over. Don't you know, Dolly, that I
never knew my grammar long ago till you had dinned it into my head; and
as you never come to my assistance now, I know well what my fate would
be."

"My dear Tony," said she, "do get rid once for all of the habit of
underrating your own abilities; as my dear father says, people very
easily make self-depreciation a plea of indolence. There, don't look
so dreary; I 'm not going to moralize in the few last minutes we are to
have together. Talk to me about yourself."

"It was for that I came, Dolly," said he, rising and taking a turn or
two up and down the room; for, in truth, he was sorely puzzled how
to approach the theme that engaged him. "I want your aid; I want your
woman's wit to help me in a difficulty. Here's what it is, Dolly," and
he sat down again at her side, and took her hand in his own. "Tell me,
Dolly," said he, suddenly, "is it true, as I have read somewhere, that a
woman, after having made a man in love with her, will boast that she is
not in the least bound to requite his affection if she satisfies herself
that she has elevated him in his ambition, given a higher spring to
his hope,--made him, in fact, something better and nobler than his own
uninspired nature had ever taught him to be? I 'm not sure that I have
said what I meant to say; but you 'll be able to guess what I intend."

"You mean, perhaps, will a woman accept a man's love as a means of
serving him without any intention of returning it?"

Perhaps he did not like the fashion in which she put his question, for
he did not answer, save by a nod.

"I say yes; such a thing is possible, and might happen readily enough if
great difference of station separated them."

"Do you mean if one was rich and the other poor?"

"Not exactly; because inequalities of fortune may exist between persons
of equal condition.