, and stood leaning upon it. Presently she asked: "WHEN did Mrs.
Roscoe Sheridan say that 'no girl' could care about you?"

"To-day."

Mary drew a deep breath. "I think I'm beginning to understand--a
little." She bit her lip; there was anger in good truth in her eyes and
in her voice. "Answer me once more," she said. "Bibbs, do you know now
why I stopped wearing my furs?"

"Yes."

"I thought so! Your sister-in-law told you, didn't she?"

"I--I heard her say--"

"I think I know what happened, now." Mary's breath came fast and her
voice shook, but she spoke rapidly. "You 'heard her say' more than that.
You 'heard her say' that we were bitterly poor, and on that account I
tried first to marry your brother--and then--" But now she faltered, and
it was only after a convulsive effort that she was able to go on. "And
then--that I tried to marry--you! You 'heard her say' that--and you
believe that I don't care for you and that 'no girl' could care for
you--but you think I am in such an 'extremity,' as Sibyl was--that you--
And so, not wanting me, and believing that I could not want you--except
for my 'extremity'--you took your father's offer and then came to ask
me--to marry you! What had I shown you of myself that could make you--"

Suddenly she sank down, kneeling, with her face buried in her arms upon
the lap of a chair, tears overwhelming her.

"Mary, Mary!" he cried, helplessly. "Oh NO--you--you don't understand."

"I do, though!" she sobbed. "I do!"

He came and stood beside her. "You kill me!" he said. "I can't make it
plain. From the first of your loveliness to me, I was all self. It was
always you that gave and I that took. I was the dependent--I did nothing
but lean on you. We always talked of me, not of you. It was all about my
idiotic distresses and troubles. I thought of you as a kind of wonderful
being that had no mortal or human suffering except by sympathy. You
seemed to lean down--out of a rosy cloud--to be kind to me. I never
dreamed I could do anything for YOU! I never dreamed you could need
anything to be done for you by anybody. And to-day I heard that--that
you--"

"You heard that I needed to marry--some one--anybody--with money," she
sobbed. "And you thought we were so--so desperate--you believed that I
had--"

"No!" he said, quickly. "I didn't believe you'd done one kind thing
for me--for that. No, no, no! I knew you'd NEVER thought of me except
generously--to give. I said I couldn't make