na. "So far as I can make it out," he said,
"they're paying away money to their shareholders which they haven't
earned. How do they do that, I wonder?"

Regina changed the subject in despair. She asked Amelius if he had found
new lodgings. Hearing that he had not yet succeeded in the search for a
residence, she opened a drawer of her work-table, and took out a card.

"The brother of one of my schoolfellows is going to be married," she
said. "He has a pretty bachelor cottage in the neighbourhood of the
Regent's Park--and he wants to sell it, with the furniture, just as it
is. I don't know whether you care to encumber yourself with a little
house of your own. His sister has asked me to distribute some of his
cards, with the address and the particulars. It might be worth your
while, perhaps, to look at the cottage when you pass that way."

Amelius took the card. The small feminine restraints and gentlenesses
of Regina, her quiet even voice, her serene grace of movement, had a
pleasantly soothing effect on his mind after the anxieties of the last
four and twenty hours. He looked at her bending over her embroidery,
deftly and gracefully industrious--and drew his chair closer to her.
She smiled softly over her work, conscious that he was admiring her, and
placidly pleased to receive the tribute.

"I would buy the cottage at once," said Amelius, "if I thought you would
come and live in it with me."

She looked up gravely, with her needle suspended in her hand.

"Don't let us return to that," she answered, and went on again with her
embroidery.

"Why not?" Amelius asked.

She persisted in working, as industriously as if she had been a poor
needlewoman, with serious reasons for being eager to get her money. "It
is useless," she replied, "to speak of what cannot be for some time to
come."

Amelius stopped the progress of the embroidery by taking her hand. Her
devotion to her work irritated him.

"Look at me, Regina," he said, steadily controlling himself. "I want
to propose that we shall give way a little on both sides. I won't hurry
you; I will wait a reasonable time. If I promise that, surely you
may yield a little in return. Money seems to be a hard taskmaster,
my darling, after what you have told me about your uncle. See how he
suffers because he is bent on being rich; and ask yourself if it isn't a
warning to us not to follow his example! Would you like to see _me_ too
wretched to speak to you, or to eat my break