s I came by
the upper road! Was it he who made you cry?"

"Certainly not," says Joyce, indignantly.

"It looks like it, however," says the other, her masculine voice growing
even sterner. "What was he saying to you?"

"I really do think----" Joyce is beginning, coldly, when Miss Maliphant
stops her by an imperative gesture.

"Oh, I know. I know all about that," says she, contemptuously. "One
shouldn't ask questions about other people's affairs; I've learned my
manners, though I seldom make any use of my knowledge, I admit. After
all, I see no reason why I shouldn't ask you that question. I want to
know, and there is no one to tell me but you. Was he proposing to you,
eh?"

"Why should you think that?" says Joyce, subdued by the masterful manner
of the other, and by something honest and above board about her that is
her chief characteristic. There is no suspicion, either, about her of
her questions being prompted by mere idle curiosity. She has said she
wanted to know, and there was meaning in her tone.

"Why shouldn't I?" says she now. "He came down here early this
afternoon. He goes away in haste--and I find you in tears. Everything
points one way."

"I don't see why it should point in that direction."

"Come, be open with me," says the heiress, brusquely, in an abrupt
fashion that still fails to offend. "Did he propose to you?"

Joyce hesitates. She raises her head and looks at Miss Maliphant
earnestly. What a good face she has, if plain. Too good to be made
unhappy. After all, why not tell her the truth? It would be a warning.
It was impossible to be blind to the fact that Miss Maliphant had been
glad to receive the dishonest attentions paid to her every now and then
by Beauclerk. Those attentions would probably be increased now, and
would end but one way. He would get Miss Maliphant's money, and
she--that good, kind-hearted girl--what would she get? It seems cruel to
be silent, and yet to speak is difficult. Would it be fair or honorable
to divulge his secret?

Would it be fair or honorable to let her imagine what is not true? He
had been false to her--Joyce (she could not blind herself to the
knowledge that with all his affected desire for her he would never have
made her an offer of his hand but for her having come in for that
money)--he would therefore be false to Miss Maliphant; he would marry
her undoubtedly, but as a husband he would break her heart. Is she, for
the sake of a word or two, to see h