p."

That flicked at her pride and the honesty of it appealed to her. She
lifted her eyes and for the first time she became aware of the real
kindness that lay in his.

"I have never hated you," she said slowly, "but I don't and can't love
you. Will you take that as your answer?"

The man shook his head. "I was not fool enough to ask--'Do you love
me?'" he reminded her; "what I want to know is, 'Will you marry me?'"

"Without love?"--her eyes besought him--"marriage must be hideous."

"I will risk it if you will," he answered. "Sit down, let us talk it
out."

He had won back his self-possession, though his eyes were still eager in
their demand. Mabel sat down on the window-seat and he pulled up a chair
at a little distance from her.

"Look here," he began, "it is like this. I am not a young man, probably
I am twelve to fourteen years older than you. If you have heard what the
village scandal says about me you can take it from me that it is true;
it is better that you should know the worst at once. But until I met
you, this I can swear before God, I have never really loved. It is not a
question of money this time; I would give my soul to win you. And I
don't want you as I have wanted the other women in my life; I want you
as my wife."

"Yet you can buy me just as you could them," Mabel whispered.

"No"--again he shook his head. "I am not making that mistake either. I
know just why I can buy you. Anyway, let us put that aside. This is the
case as I see it. I have money, heaps of it; I have a good large house
and servants eating their heads off. I will make Mrs. Grant comfortable;
she will live with us, of course, and she is welcome to everything I
have got; and I love you. That is the one great drawback, isn't it? The
question is. Will you be able to put up with it?"

Away in the back of Mabel's mind another voice whispered, "I love you."
She had to shut her lids over the "Dream Eyes," to hold back the tears.

"Even if things were different," she said, "I could not love you; I have
always loved someone else."

Mr. Jarvis sat back in his chair with a quick frown. "Any chance of his
marrying you?" he asked.

"No," she had to admit, "there has never been any chance of that."

"I see"--he looked up at her and down again at his podgy, fat hands,
clenched together. "My offer still holds good," he said abruptly.

"Oh, I don't know what to say or what to do." Mabel's calm broke, she
stood up nervously. It almost