estion," said
Bettina, proudly. "My reasons are sufficient for myself."

"You are in no way bound, my dear young lady, but you would be wise
to answer me. I have every disposition to act as your friend in this
matter, and you would be making a mistake to turn away from me
without hearing what I have to say. If you are imagining that the
young fellow with whom you have an engagement of marriage would be
rendered inconsolable by the loss of you, when it would be made up to
him by the possession of a fortune, perhaps you overestimate things."

"What things?" she said, still cold and withheld in her manner, her
pale face very set.

"The unselfishness of man's love in general, and of this man's in
particular," he said; "and, for another thing, yourself. It seems a
brutal thing to say, but if you believe that that hotheaded,
undisciplined boy is capable of a sustained affection against such
odds of fortune as this case presents, then I disagree with you, and
I know him better than you do."

Bettina's face flushed.

"He does love me--he does!" she cried, in some agitation. "I have
been cold and careless toward him, and have told him that my heart
was buried in my mother's grave." At these words her voice trembled.
"He knows how hard it is for me to think of another kind of love just
yet; but he has been kindness itself, and has written me the dearest,
lovingest letters that ever a woman had. If they have been a little
rarer and colder lately, it is only because of my own shortcomings
toward him. I shall try to atone for them now. Since I realize how
great an injury I have done to him, I shall try to be his
compensation for it."

"And you think you will succeed? I doubt it."

Something in his manner impressed her in spite of herself. Perhaps he
saw that it was so, for he pushed his advantage.

"Compare the length and opportunities of my intercourse with him and
yours," he said. "You would be acting the part of absolute folly not
to listen to me now. In the end you will be as free to act as you
were in the beginning. Only let me remind you that his future is
involved as well as your own."

He saw that this argument told.

"I am willing to listen," she said.

"I am grateful to you," he answered, with that air of finished
politeness which makes the best graces of a young man seem crude, and
which Bettina was not too ignorant to appreciate at its proper value.

"I have known Horace as child and boy and man--if he ma