r that."

"But he tells such lies; and then he has not a penny in the world.
How much do you suppose he owes me, now?"

"However much it is, I'm sure you are too much of a gentleman to
say."

"Well;--yes, I am," said he, trying to recover himself. "But when I
asked him how he intended to pay me, what do you think he said? He
said he'd pay me when he got your money."

"My money! He couldn't have said that!"

"But he did, Mrs Greenow; I give you my word and honour. 'I'll pay
you when I get the widow's money,' he said."

"You gentlemen must have a nice way of talking about me when I am
absent."

"I never said a disrespectful word about you in my life, Mrs
Greenow,--or thought one. He does;--he says horrible things."

"What horrible things, Mr Cheesacre?"

"Oh, I can't tell you;--but he does. What can you expect from such
a man as that, who, to my knowledge, won't have a change of clothes
to-morrow, except what he brought in on his back this morning. Where
he's to get a bed to-night, I don't know, for I doubt whether he's
got half-a-crown in the world."

"Poor Bellfield!"

"Yes; he is poor."

"But how gracefully he carries his poverty."

"I should call it very disgraceful, Mrs Greenow." To this she made
no reply, and then he thought that he might begin his work. "Mrs
Greenow,--may I say Arabella?"

"Mr Cheesacre!"

"But mayn't I? Come, Mrs Greenow. You know well enough by this time
what it is I mean. What's the use of shilly-shallying?"

"Shilly-shallying, Mr Cheesacre! I never heard such language. If I
bid you good night, now, and tell you that it is time for you to go
home, shall you call that shilly-shallying?"

He had made a mistake in his word and repented it. "I beg your
pardon, Mrs Greenow; I do indeed. I didn't mean anything offensive."

"Shilly-shallying, indeed! There's very little shall in it, I can
assure you."

The poor man was dreadfully crestfallen, so much so that the widow's
heart relented, and she pardoned him. It was not in her nature to
quarrel with people;--at any rate, not with her lovers. "I beg your
pardon, Mrs Greenow," said the culprit, humbly. "It is granted," said
the widow; "but never tell a lady again that she is shilly-shallying.
And look here, Mr Cheesacre, if it should ever come to pass that you
are making love to a lady in earnest--"

"I couldn't be more in earnest," said he.

"That you are making love to a lady in earnest, talk to her a little
more about your