"All right, my dear, mum's the word; but don't you never say no word to
me again about you having taken the money. It's insulting William Forth
Burge, that's what it is."

Hazel looked up sadly in his face, which was now scarlet with
excitement.

"I thank you, Mr Burge," she said simply; and then, smiling, "Am I not
right in saying that you are a true gentleman?"

"No, no no, my dear; you are not right," he replied sorrowfully.

"But I am!" she cried.

"No, my dear, no; but I know you think you are; and if--if you could go
on thinking that I was just a little like a gentleman, you'd make me
very happy indeed, for I do think a deal of you."

"It is no thought--no fancy, Mr Burge; but the truth."

"And if some day--say some day ever so far off--though it would be a
pity to put it off long, for a fellow at my age don't improve by
keeping--I say if by-and-by--"

"Mr Burge--dear Mr Burge--"

"I say--say that again."

"Mr Burge," said Hazel, laying her hands in his; "you have told me you
loved me, and asked me to be your wife."

"Yes," he said, kissing her hand reverently, "and it's been like going
out of my sphere."

"It would be cruel of me not to speak plainly to you."

"Yes," he said dejectedly, "it would; though it's very hard when a man's
been filling himself full of hope to find it all go--right off at once."

"It is my fate to bring misery and trouble amongst people," she sobbed,
"and I would have given anything to have spared you this. I respect and
esteem you, Mr Burge, more than I can find words to say; but I could
never love you as your wife."

He dropped the hand he held, and turned slowly away that she might not
see the workings of his face; and then, laying his arms upon the
mantelpiece, he let his head go down, and for the next few minutes he
stood there, with his chest heaving, crying softly like a broken-hearted
child.

"I cannot bear it," muttered Hazel, as she wrung her hands and gazed
wildly about the sumptuously furnished room, as if in search of help;
for the troubles of the past had told upon her nerves. She felt
hysterical, and could not keep back her own tears, which at last burst
forth in a wild fit of passionate sobbing, as she sank into the nearest
chair and covered her face with her hands.

This roused her suitor, who took out his flaming orange handkerchief,
and used it freely and simply, finishing off, after he had wiped his
eyes, with a loud and sonorous blow of hi