" I asked, without turning my face towards
him.

"I had thought," he began with hesitation, and then paused--"I had
thought that you would have put that question to me, rather than Brunow.
Was I wrong?"

"Brunow has put the question, sir," I answered, "and he has a right to
be answered. You can guess now, I fancy, why I can give you no advice."

"That is enough," said the count. "Pray understand me, my dear
Fyffe. This is a matter of delicacy in which I am perhaps acting very
strangely, but I have thought that you cared for my child. I had hoped
that it was so, and I had hoped that she might care for you. I had
not thought of Mr. Brunow in this way; and if I intrust my daughter's
happiness to his charge, I am afraid."

"I did not know," I told him, "that I had betrayed myself. If you have
found out the truth about me, I can't be blamed for having told you. I
should have spoken to you weeks ago, but you see how I live." He cast
his eyes about the room and nodded. "I am as poor as a church-mouse, and
I see no way to better my position."

"I had some hopes," said the count, "that you might tell me this. It was
that which led me to come here and ask you to advise me."

A wild and improbable hope sprang into my mind, but it died as soon as
it was born. Perhaps I was absurd enough to fancy the count had seen
something in his daughter's manner which led him to believe that she
cared for me, and perhaps he had taken advantage of Brunow's proposal to
awake me to a sense of my own wasted opportunities. I put that fancy
by, for intimate as I had grown to be with Miss Rossano. I had never
discerned the faintest hint in her manner of anything but friendship.
If my fancy had not been already dead, the count's next words would have
killed it outright.

"I have nothing," he said, "to guide me to my daughter's feelings, but I
am certain of my own. Mr. Brunow's declaration took me by surprise, but
I had been expecting yours, and should have received it with pleasure."

"I did my best to form an honest judgment and to act like an honorable
man. Mr. Brunow," I said, "has known Miss Rossano much longer than I
have. I must not disguise the fact that he has more than once spoken to
me of his attachment to her. He mentioned that months ago, but in such
a way that I hardly supposed him to be in earnest. He has spoken first,
and he has a right to an answer. If when he has received his answer I
still have a right to speak, I may do so."