ur money will hold out for some
time to come."

"Oh dear, yes!" she cried more brightly, "and before it has all gone,
why, I shall be provided with somebody else's."

Still she looked up at him rather pitifully, her eyes meeting his own,
her chin invitingly raised with its delectable dimple. Now, Mark
wished devoutly that the idea of that dimple as a sort of _point
d'appui_ had never entered his thoughts, but there was the regrettable
fact. Of course he had hitherto always resisted the temptation, which
was the greater because he knew that he need not fear opposition; but
still, there was Carrissima and he resisted it again.

He went to Grandison Square the following afternoon as if to seek a
corrective; and once in her presence marvelled at his own weakness.
Here was the woman, as somebody says, for him to go picnicking through
the world with. Not that the time had arrived just yet. Mark was not
without a sturdy independence. Besides, there would be Colonel
Faversham to deal with. As soon as he had made a beginning in his
profession, then would be the time to ask Carrissima to share his lot.

"Well, did you see Bridget?" she asked.

"Oh yes," said Mark.

"If you appointed yourself her father-confessor she must have been a
wee bit surprised."

"The surprise was on my side," said Mark.

"What about?" demanded Carrissima.

"The state of her finances. All she has in the world is the remnant of
two or three thousand pounds she inherited from her mother. Rosser
left her nothing, and she is calmly spending her capital."

"But why," suggested Carrissima, "should she go out of her way to
enlighten you about her income?"

"Anyhow," was the answer, "the time is bound to come when she won't
possess one."

"What does she propose to do in that case?" said Carrissima. "At
present her dressmaker's bill must be rather extravagant, and I wish I
could buy such hats! I suppose," Carrissima added, "that marriage is
to be the way out of her difficulty."

"At least," replied Mark, "you may console yourself that nothing is
settled at the moment."

"How do you know?" asked Carrissima hastily.

"You may accept it as a fact," he insisted.

"Undoubtedly," she retorted, "your conversation must have taken an
extraordinary turn last night. Mark, you are rather tantalizing. It
is so evident that you are only favouring me with elegant extracts."

"Oh well, I don't want to give the girl away," he said. "And look
here