expecting this for some years; now that it is done
with, it is a sort of grim relief. The worst of all is that I've had to
give up all hope of winning you. That is the worst of all. If you didn't
care for me when I was thought to be in a position to give you all that
girls like, you could never look at me now that I'm a pauper. I only hope
you will get some fellow who will make you as happy as I would have tried
to had you let me."

I sat and wondered at the marvellous self-containment of the man before
me. With this crash impending, just imagine the worry he must have gone
through! But never had the least suspicion that he was troubled found
betrayal on his brow.

"Good-bye, Syb," he said; "though I'm a nobody now, if I could ever be of
use to you, don't be afraid to ask me."

I remember him wringing the limp hand I mechanically stretched out to him
and then slowly revaulting the fence. The look of him riding slowly along
with his broad shoulders drooping despondently waked me to my senses. I
had been fully engrossed with the intelligence of Harold's
misfortune--that I was of sufficient importance to concern him in any way
had not entered my head; but it suddenly dawned on me that Harold had
said that I was, and he was not in the habit of uttering idle nothings.

While fortune smiled on him I had played with his manly love, but now
that she frowned had let him go without even a word of friendship. I had
been poor myself, and knew what awaited him in the world. He would find
that they who fawned on him most would be first to turn their backs on
him now. He would be rudely disillusioned regarding the fables of love
and friendship, and would become cynical, bitter, and sceptical of there
being any disinterested good in human nature. Suffering the cold
heart-weariness of this state myself, I felt anxious at any price to save
Harold Beecham from a like fate. It would be a pity to let one so young
be embittered in that way.

There was a short cut across the paddocks to a point of the road where he
would pass; and with these thoughts flashing through my mind, hatless and
with flying hair, I ran as fast as I could, scrambling up on the fence in
a breathless state just as he had passed.

"Hal, Hal!" I called. "Come back, come back! I want you."

He turned his horse slowly.

"Well, Syb, what is it?"

"Oh, Hal, dear Hal! I was thinking too much to say anything; but you
surely don't think I'd be so mean as to care a pin