ill see that my love for her fills my whole being, and
that I live to serve her, protect her, worship her.'

'Many men have loved in vain,' I replied; 'but, assuming for the moment
that you could win her love, your hopes would be still as impossible as
ever.'

'Rule out the word impossible. But tell me why you believe it is so.'

'First of all, Lorna Bolivick is a young lady of position, she is a child
of an old family, and when she marries she will naturally marry into her
own class.'

'Naturally; but what of that? Am I not of--of her class?'

'Doubtless. But face facts. You have not a penny beyond your
pay;--would it be fair, would it be right of you, to go to such a girl as
she, reared as she has been, and offer her only poverty?'

'I will make a position,' he cried enthusiastically. 'I'm not a fool!'

'How? When?' I asked.

'For the moment I don't know how, or when,' he replied, 'but it shall be
done.'

'Then think again,' I went on, 'you could not marry her without her
parents' consent, and if they know your purposes they would close their
doors against you. Fancy Sir Thomas Bolivick allowing his daughter to
marry a man with only a subaltern's pay!'

'Number two,' he replied with a laugh; 'go on,'--and I could see that he
regarded my words as of no more weight than thistledown.

'Yes, that is number two,' I replied. 'Now to come to number three. Do
you think that you, alone, are strong enough to match yourself with your
rivals?'

'You mean Buller and Springfield? I have told you what I think about
Buller; as for Springfield, he's a bad man. Besides, if I am poor, is he
not poor, too? He's only a captain.'

'Buller tells me he's the heir to a peerage,' I replied, 'and that when
somebody dies he will come into pots of money. And whatever else you may
think about him, he is a strong man, capable and determined. If you are
right about him, and you think there's going to be a battle royal between
you two, you will have a dangerous enemy, an enemy who will stop at
nothing. But that is not all. The greatest difficulty has not yet been
mentioned.'

'What is that?'

I hesitated before replying. I felt I was going to be cruel, and yet I
could not help it.

'You have no right to ask any woman to be your wife,' I urged--'least of
all a woman whom you love as you say you love Lorna Bolivick.'

'Why?' and there was a tone of anxiety in his voice.

'Because you don't know who you are, or wh