fast--and all for the sake
of a little outward show? Come, come! let us think of ourselves. Why
should we waste the best days of our life apart, when we are both free
to be happy together? I have another good friend besides Rufus--the good
friend of my father before me. He knows all sorts of great people, and
he will help me to some employment. In six months' time I might have a
little salary to add to my income. Say the sweetest words, my darling,
that ever fell from your lips--say you will marry me in six months!"

It was not in a woman's nature to be insensible to such pleading
as this. She all but yielded. "I should like to say it, dear!" she
answered, with a little fluttering sigh.

"Say it, then!" Amelius suggested tenderly.

She took refuge again in her embroidery. "If you would only give me a
little time," she suggested, "I might say it."

"Time for what, my own love?"

"Time to wait, dear, till my uncle is not quite so anxious as he is
now."

"Don't talk of your uncle, Regina! You know as well as I do what he
would say. Good heavens! why can't you decide for yourself? No! I don't
want to hear over again about what you owe to Mr. Farnaby--I heard
enough of it on that day in the shrubbery. Oh, my dear girl, do have
some feeling for me! do for once have a will of your own!"

Those last words were an offence to her self-esteem. "I think it's very
rude to tell me I have no will of my own," she said, "and very hard
to press in this way when you know I am in trouble." The inevitable
handkerchief appeared, adding emphasis to the protest--and the becoming
tears showed themselves modestly in Regina's magnificent eyes.

Amelius started out of his chair, and walked away to the window. That
last reference to Mr. Farnaby's pecuniary cares was more than he had
patience to endure. "She can't even forget her uncle and his bank," he
thought, "when I am speaking to her of our marriage!"

He kept his face hidden from her, at the window. By some subtle process
of association which he was unable to trace, the image of Simple Sally
rose in his mind. An irresistible influence forced him to think of
her--not as the poor, starved, degraded, half-witted creature of the
streets, but as the grateful girl who had asked for no happier future
than to be his servant, who had dropped senseless at his feet at the
bare prospect of parting with him. His sense of self-respect, his
loyalty to his betrothed wife, resolutely resisted the unw