of her
brothers was dead, and that by his will I, as his sole heiress,
inherited his money. From your point of view it would be nothing, but
to me it meant a great deal. It was carefully invested, and it brings
me in, in English money, just three hundred pounds a year. Of course
we cannot do much with such a sum; but, as we have no expensive tastes,
Madame Bernstein and I find that with it, and the sum I make by my
painting, we are just able to make both ends meet."

On hearing this Browne pricked up his ears. This was putting a new
complexion on the affair.

"Do you mean to say that Madame Bernstein has no income of her own, and
that all these years she has been living upon you?"

"Yes. And why not? You cannot realise what a wonderful manager she
is. I should not be able to do half as much with it if I had the sole
control of my money."

"This is a matter which will have to be attended to in the near
future," said Browne to himself. Then, aloud, he added, "Never mind,
little woman; when you are my wife Madame shall retire in luxury. She
shall not find us ungrateful, believe me. But continue your story.
Or, I fancy, you had better let me finish it for you. You have told me
that you have lived with Madame Bernstein, or rather, to be correct,
that she has lived with you, for many years. You have travelled from
place to place about Europe; for some reason or another you have had no
fixed home; then you began to paint, and during the whole time you have
denied yourself all sorts of things in order that Madame should live in
the lap of luxury. Oh, don't dispute it, for I know what has happened
as well as if I had been there to see. In the course of your
peregrinations you went to Norway. There we met. Six months later you
came to London, during which time I had been wondering whether I should
ever see you again. Fate arranged that we should meet. I found you
even more adorable than before, followed you to Paris, proposed and was
accepted, and, like all pretty stories, ours must, and shall end with
the music of wedding bells."

"Impossible," she answered. "From what I have already shown you, you
must see that it could not be. Had my life been differently situated I
should have been proud--you do not know how proud--to be your wife;
but, as it is, it is quite out of the question. Some day you will see
that yourself, and will thank me for having prevented you from spoiling
your life by a foolish marri