s together, and
bending forward, lifted her honest, handsome eyes to the man before her.

"Mr. Rushbrook, I have got between four and five hundred thousand
dollars that I have no use for; I can control securities which can be
converted, if necessary, into a hundred thousand more in ten days. I am
free and my own mistress. It is generally considered that I know what I
am about--you admitted as much when I was your pupil. I have come here
to place this sum in your hands, at your free disposal. You know why and
for what purpose."

"But what do you know of my affairs?" asked Rushbrook, quickly.

"Everything, and I know YOU, which is better. Call it an investment if
you like--for I know you will succeed--and let me share your profits.
Call it--if you please--restitution, for I am the miserable cause of
your rupture with that man. Or call it revenge if you like," she said
with a faint smile, "and let me fight at your side against our common
enemy! Please, Mr. Rushbrook, don't deny me this. I have come three
thousand miles for it; I could have sent it to you--or written--but I
feared you would not understand it. You are smiling--you will take it?"

"I cannot," said Rushbrook, gravely.

"Then you force me to go into the Stock Market myself, and fight for
you, and, unaided by YOUR genius, perhaps lose it without benefiting
you."

Rushbrook did not reply.

"At least, then, tell me why you 'cannot.'"

Rushbrook rose, and looking into her face, said quietly with his old
directness:--

"Because I love you, Miss Nevil."

A sudden instinct to rise and move away, a greater one to remain and
hear him speak again, and a still greater one to keep back the blood
that she felt was returning all too quickly to her cheek after the first
shock, kept her silent. But she dropped her eyes.

"I loved you ever since I first saw you at Los Osos," he went on
quickly; "I said to myself even then, that if there was a woman that
would fill my life, and make me what she wished me to be, it was you. I
even fancied that day that you understood me better than any woman, or
even any man, that I had ever met before. I loved you through all that
miserable business with that man, even when my failure to make you happy
with another brought me no nearer to you. I have loved you always. I
shall love you always. I love you more for this foolish kindness that
brings YOU beneath my roof once more, and gives me a chance to speak my
heart to you, if only