`I hold you to no engagement. I ask nothing of you: I only tell
you that I love you with all my heart'?"

"`And some day I will return,'" said Richmond, in a low deep voice.

"Yes, and some day he will return, dear: I do believe it, I _will_
believe it, and--Oh, Rich, Rich, Rich, why, why are we such unhappy
girls?"

It was the elder's turn now to try and comfort the younger, who had
burst into a passionate fit of weeping, so full of anguish that, at
last, Richmond raised her friend's hand, kissed it, and holding the
bonny little head between her hands, she said, with almost motherly
tenderness.

"Janet, Hendon has been speaking to you again?"

There was no reply.

"I knew it," said Richmond half angrily. "It was thoughtless and cruel
of him!"

"No, no, don't blame him, dear. No one could be more noble and more
good. You know how hard he works."

"Yes," said Richmond, with a sigh.

"And if he is impatient with his home and your father, why, you must
recollect that he is a man, and men are not meant to be patient and
suffering, like women."

"He is too thoughtless, Janet, and--I don't like to say it of my own
brother--too selfish."

"No, no!" cried Janet, flushing.

"Yes, dear, yes. Could he have had his way, you two would have been man
and wife, and he half living on the earnings of these poor tiny little
hands."

"I don't think he would have pressed me to it, Rich; and after all, it
was because he loved me so."

"Yes, and would have taken advantage of your loneliness here in this
great cruel city, and dragged you down to poverty and misery such as I
am bearing now. Janet, Janet dear, I feel sometimes as if I cannot bear
this miserable degradation longer, and that all these troubles must be a
punishment for my not telling my father about Mark."

"Why, Rich," said Janet, turning comforter once more, "what was there to
tell? You made no engagement. And look here, if so much trouble is to
come of love, why, you and I will take vows, and be single all our days.
There, now, you look more like yourself; and I'm going to tell you my
news."

"News?" cried Richmond, starting eagerly, and then looking sadly at her
friend.

"Yes, two more pupils. I'm getting along famously now. And it does
make me so happy and resigned. There, I must go, but--"

"You have something more to say to me?"

"Yes, only--there, I will be firm. Don't be angry with me, Rich dear,
for I seem to have no one to care for