d so serious."

"Has Millicent any suspicion of your regard for her?" It was an important
question and Mrs. Gladwyne waited in suspense for his reply.

"Not the slightest, so far as I can tell. I tried to hide my feelings
until I could come to a decision as to what I ought to do."

This was satisfactory, provided that his supposition was correct, and his
companion could imagine his exercising a good deal of self-repression.

"What is your fear?" she asked.

"Well, I'm rough and unpolished compared with Nasmyth and the rest, but
with her large mind she might overlook that. I couldn't live here as
Nasmyth and Clarence do; I'm not rich enough. My wife, if I marry, must
come out West with me, and I might have to be away from her for months
now and then. I don't know that I could even establish myself in
Victoria, where she would find something resembling your English society.
Besides, my small share of prosperity might come to an end; I'm going
back now, sooner than I expected, because there are business difficulties
to be grappled with."

Mrs. Gladwyne nodded. She could follow his thought, but after a pause he
continued.

"What troubles me most is that Millicent seems so much in harmony with
her surroundings. We have nothing like them in Canada--anyway, not in the
West. Whether ours are better or worse doesn't affect the case; they're
widely different. There is much she would have to give up; what I could
offer her in place of it would be new and strange, less finished, less
refined. Could a woman of your station stand it? Would she suffer from
being torn adrift from the associations that surround her here?"

His companion considered. Allowing for his generosity in thinking first
of Millicent, he was a little too practical and dispassionate. She did
not think he was very greatly in love with the girl as yet, and that was
consoling. What Millicent thought she did not know, but in many respects
the man was eminently likable. Mrs. Gladwyne had grown fond of him; but
that must not be allowed to stand in her son's way. Clarence came before
anybody else.

"I feel my responsibility," she said slowly. "Would you act on my
advice?"

"I think so--it might be hard. Anyway, I'd try."

She hesitated. The man had won her respect. Had she been wholly free from
extraneous influences she might, perhaps, have counseled him to make the
venture, but half-consciously she tried to see only the shadows in the
picture he had drawn.