looked into her eager face with a passion of jealous inquiry
that made her cast down her eyes:

"Alice, do you _love_ this Hastings?"

He called her Alice; he used a tone and asked a question which could not
be misunderstood. Mrs. Hastings dropped her face into her hands, her
hands upon her knees. She felt like a wild creature which the dogs hold
at bay. She knew now what the man meant, and the temptation he used.

"Alice," he said again, "this man, your husband, possesses a prize he
does not value; or does not know how to care for. Shall you stay here
and starve with him? Is he worth it?"

"He is my husband," she answered simply, lifting up her face, calm, if
mortally pale.

"And I might be your husband, after a brief interval," he said quickly.
"There would have to be a divorce;--it could be conducted quietly. I do
not ask you to commit yourself to dishonor. I will shield you; no care
shall fall upon you, nor any reproach. Consider this well, dearest
darling Alice! and what will be your fate if you depend upon him."

"Will it help _him_ then, to desert him?" she asked faintly.

"Yes, unless by remaining with him you can insure his support. Maintain
you he cannot. Suppose his mine were sold, he would waste that money as
he wasted what he brought here. I don't want his mine, yet I will buy it
tomorrow if that will satisfy you, and I have your promise to go with
me. I told you once that I wanted to run away with you, and now I mean
to. Shall I tell you my plan?"

"No, not to-day," Mrs. Hastings answered, struggling with her pain and
embarrassment; "I could not bear it to-day, I think."

"How cruel I am while meaning to be kind! You are agitated as you ought
not to be in your weak state. Shall I see you to-morrow--a professional
visit, you know?"

"You will buy the mine?"--faintly, with something like a blush.

"Certainly; I swear I will--on what conditions, you know."

"On none other?"

"Shall I rob myself, not of money only, but of what is far dearer?--On
_none other_." He rose, took her cold hand, clasped it fervently, and
went away.

When Jack came home to his very meagre dinner, he brought a can of
peaches, which, being opened, looked so deliciously cool and tempting
that Alice could not refrain from volubly exulting over them. "But how
did you get them, Jack?" she asked; "not by going into debt, I hope."

"No. I was in Scott's store, and Earle, happening to come in just as
Scott was selling some, a