onfessed.

He looked puzzled.

"I don't quite understand. You don't have to wear a uniform or
anything."

She looked at him pityingly.

"Look at me," she directed. "Now what would you say if I walked into
your office and asked for a post as typist at two or three pounds a
week?"

"Take you on like a shot," he assured her enthusiastically.

"Don't be silly. I don't mean personally. I am looking upon you as a
type. Well, supposing you did take me on, your wife would call down at
the office in a few days, look at me and call you to one side. I can
hear her whispering in your ear--'You must get rid of that girl.'"

"And just why?" he asked.

"I suppose you think that I am very plainly dressed?"

"You look very nice," he declared, glancing at her neat black and
white check tailormade suit, the smart hat, and remembering his
glimpse of her silk stockings and shapely black patent shoes as she
had come down the stairs; "very nice indeed, but you are dressed quite
plainly."

"The ignorance of men!" she sighed. "This costume I have on cost forty
guineas and came from one of the best places in London. My hat cost
twelve, and everything else I have on is in proportion. These are the
last remnants of my glory. Well, when I went down to the city, I had
to wear a blue serge costume I had bought ready-made, sort of hybrid
stockings which I hated, a hat of the neat variety, which means no
shape and no style, fabric gloves, and shoes from a ready-made shop. I
felt, day by day, just as though I were trying to play a hopeless part
in some private theatricals. I couldn't breathe. You see, I am not in
the least a heroine. I want the things I've been used to, somehow or
other."

"There is another alternative," Jacob ventured.

"You refer, I suppose, to marriage or its equivalent? As it happens,
however, I have peculiar views about sacrificing my liberty. I would
sooner give everything I have to a person I cared for than sell myself
to a person whom I disliked. Isn't that your bill?"

Jacob's fingers trembled a little as he drew out a note and laid it
upon the plate.

"I wonder why you dislike me so much," he speculated, as they waited
for his change.

She contemplated him indifferently.

"Does one discuss those things? Are you coming to Russell Square for
your lesson this afternoon?"

"It scarcely seems worth while," he sighed.

"I think you had better," she said, frowning. "They are expecting
you."

"They?" he rep