, somewhat dubiously, "but I
wouldn't be certain about it, though the steamship company guarantee to
land me at the Cape, wherever it is."

The girl laughed.

"You must have given it a great deal of thought," she said, "when you
don't really know where you are going."

"Oh, I have a better idea of direction than you give me credit for. I
am not such a fool as I looked last night, you know; then I belonged to
Spink and Company, and was sublet by them to old Heckle; now I belong
to myself and South Africa. That makes a world of difference, you
know."

"I see it does," replied Miss Linderham. "Won't you sit down?"

The girl herself sank into an armchair, while Stansford sat on a low
table, swinging one foot to and fro, his wide-brimmed hat thrown back,
and gazed at the girl until she reddened more than ever. Neither spoke
for some moments.

"Do you know," said Stansford at last, "that when I look at you South
Africa seems a long distance away!"

"I thought it was a long distance away," said the girl, without looking
up.

"Yes; but it's longer and more lonely when one looks at you. By Jove,
if I thought I couldn't do better, I would be tempted to take that two
thousand a year offer of yours and----"

"It wasn't an offer of mine," cried the girl hastily. "Perhaps the lady
I was thinking of wouldn't have agreed to it, even if I had spoken to
her about it."

"That is quite true; still, I think if she had seen me in this outfit
she would have thought me worth the money."

"You think you can make more than two thousand a year out in South
Africa? You have become very hopeful all in a moment. It seems to me
that a man who thinks he can make two thousand a year is very foolish
to let himself out at two guineas an evening."

"Do you know, Miss Linderham, that was just what I thought myself, and
I told the respectable Spink so, too. I told him I had had an offer of
two thousand a year in his own line of business. He said that no firm
in London could afford the money. 'Why,' he cried, waxing angry, 'I
could get a Duke for that.'"

"'Well,' I replied, 'it is purely a matter of business with me. I was
offered two thousand pounds a year as ornamental man by a most charming
young lady, who has a studio in South Kensington, and who is herself,
when dressed up as an artist, prettier than any picture that ever
entered the Royal Academy'; that's what I told Spink."

The girl looked up at him, first with indignation in her