o his friend. Pawkins's port wine
may, perhaps, have had something to do with the resolution. "But I'd
go through fire and water for her, my lord. I knew her years before
he had ever seen her, and have loved her a great deal better than he
will ever love any one. When I heard that she had accepted him, I had
half a mind to cut my own throat,--or else his."

"Highty tighty," said the earl.

"It's very ridiculous, I know," said Johnny, "and, of course, she
would never have accepted me."

"I don't see that at all."

"I haven't a shilling in the world."

"Girls don't care much for that."

"And then a clerk in the Income-tax Office! It's such a poor thing."

"The other fellow was only a clerk in another office."

The earl living down at Guestwick did not understand that the
Income-tax Office in the city, and the General Committee Office at
Whitehall, were as far apart as Dives and Lazarus and separated by as
impassable a gulf.

"Oh, yes," said Johnny; "but his office is another kind of thing, and
then he was a swell himself."

"By George, I don't see it," said the earl.

"I don't wonder a bit at her accepting a fellow like that. I hated
him the first moment I saw him; but that's no reason she should hate
him. He had that sort of manner, you know. He was a swell, and girls
like that kind of thing. I never felt angry with her, but I could
have eaten him." As he spoke he looked as though he would have made
some such attempt had Crosbie been present.

"Did you ever ask her to have you?" said the earl.

"No; how could I ask her, when I hadn't bread to give her?"

"And you never told her--that you were in love with her, I mean, and
all that kind of thing."

"She knows it now," said Johnny; "I went to say good-bye to her the
other day, when I thought she was going to be married. I could not
help telling her then."

"But it seems to me, my dear fellow, that you ought to be very much
obliged to Crosbie;--that is to say, if you've a mind to--"

"I know what you mean, my lord. I am not a bit obliged to him. It's
my belief that all this will about kill her. As to myself, if I
thought she'd ever have me--"

Then he was again silent, and the earl could see that the tears were
in his eyes.

"I think I begin to understand it," said the earl, "and I'll give you
a bit of advice. You come down and spend your Christmas with me at
Guestwick."

"Oh, my lord!"

"Never mind my-lording me, but do as I tell you. Lady Juli