o be bought and sold,"--interrupted Reay; "I know that now.
But I didn't know it then. She looked a sweet innocent angel,--with a
pretty face and beautiful eyes--just the kind of creature we men fall in
love with at first sight----"

"The kind of creature who, if you had married her, would have made you
wretched for life,"--said Helmsley. "Be thankful you escaped her!"

"Oh, I'm thankful enough now!" and Reay pushed back his rebellious lock
of hair again--"For when one has a great ambition in view, freedom is
better than love----"

Helmsley raised his wrinkled, trembling hand.

"No, don't say that!" he murmured, gently--"Nothing--nothing in all the
world is better than love!"

Involuntarily his eyes turned towards Mary with a strange wistfulness.
There was an unspoken yearning in his face that was almost pain. Her
quick instinctive sympathy responded to his thought, and rising, she
went to him on the pretext of re-arranging the cushion in his chair, so
that he might lean back more comfortably. Then she took his hand and
patted it kindly.

"You're a sentimental old boy, aren't you, David!" she said,
playfully--"You like being taken care of and fussed over! Of course you
do! Was there ever a man that didn't!"

He was silent, but he pressed her caressing hand gratefully.

"No one has ever taken care of or fussed over _me_," said Reay--"I
should rather like to try the experiment!"

Mary laughed good-humouredly.

"You must find yourself a wife,"--she said--"And then you'll see how you
like it."

"But wives don't make any fuss over their husbands it seems to me,"
replied Reay--"At any rate in London, where I have lived for the past
five years--husbands seem to be the last persons in the world whom their
wives consider. I don't think I shall ever marry."

"I'm sure _I_ shan't,"--said Mary, smiling--and as she spoke, she bent
over the fire, and threw a fresh log of wood on to keep up the bright
glow which was all that illuminated the room, from which almost every
pale glimmer of the twilight had now departed--"I'm an old maid. But I
was an engaged girl once!"

Helmsley lifted up his head with sudden and animated interest.

"Were you, Mary?"

"Oh, yes!" And the smile deepened round her expressive mouth and played
softly in her eyes--"Yes, David, really! I was engaged to a very
good-looking young man in the electrical engineering business. And I was
very fond of him. But when my father lost every penny, my good