ld do for you was to stand out of
the way. But the case is altered now. You love me, and that lays a new
duty on us both. The question is--how much do you love me, Rosie dear?
How much are you prepared to give up for my sake? I am a poor man, and
have my way to make. In ten--a dozen years from now, if I am alive and
well,"--Arthur squared his shoulders and drew himself up with an air of
a man who has a justifiable confidence in his own powers--"I shall have
made a position for myself which will be worth your acceptance; but we
must realise what ten years means. In ten years, sweetheart," he looked
at her with a smile so tender that her eyes fell before his, "you will
be young no longer. You will have passed the best years of your life.
Could you bear to pass them as the wife of a poor man, living in a small
house, without any of the luxuries and pleasures to which you are
accustomed? Do you love me enough to do it _willingly_? I'd work with
the strength of ten men, but I have had more experience of the world
than you, dear, and I know that success cannot come in a day. With all
my love and all my care, I could not shield you from the waiting which
must come first."

"But--but--" faltered Rosalind, and was silent. The matter-of-fact
manner in which Arthur had followed up the mutual declaration of love by
a proposal of marriage had filled her with consternation. She did love
him, oh yes! If he had been in Lord Everscourt's position, how gladly
she would have been his wife! but his picture of the life which the must
share if she joined in her lot with him sent a chill of dismay through
her veins. Ten years of poverty and obscurity, ten years' work and
waiting, with no possibility of success until youth and beauty had fled,
and she was an uninteresting, middle-aged woman! Rosalind shivered at
the thought, and summoned up courage to protest once more.

"It is so sudden, Arthur, that I don't know what to say. I was never
sure until now that you weally did care for me. And to talk of being
mawwied so soon--at once!"

"What else can we do? When you tell me that other men wish to marry
you, you cannot wonder that I want to claim you as my own. You are
troubled about Lord Everscourt, but if you were engaged to me the matter
would settle itself dear, and it would be the best way out of the
difficulty. I will speak to your father at once, and--"

"No, no!" she cried quickly, so quickly and with such an emphas