f sale. The suspicion crossed her mind that
Rickman, in his father's interests, might be trying to pump her as to
the smallest sum that need be offered.

"Because," he added, "it isn't. Miss Harden stands to lose something
like three thousand pounds by it."

Kitty's evil surmises vanished utterly. "Good Heavens!" she exclaimed,
"how do you make that out?"

"It's only the difference between what the library ought to fetch and
what will be given for it. Of course no dealer could give the _full_
value; still, between one thousand and four thousand there's a
considerable difference."

"And who pockets it?"

"My fa--the dealer, if he succeeds in selling again to the best
advantage. He might not, and my father, as it happens, considers that
he's taking a great risk. But I know more about it than he does, and I
don't agree with him. That's why I don't want him to get hold of those
books if I can help it."

Kitty was thoughtful.

"You see," he continued, "I know he'd like to do what he thinks
generous under the circumstances, but he isn't interested in Miss
Harden, and he _is_ interested in the Harden library. It's a chance
that a dealer like him only gets once in a lifetime and I'm afraid it
isn't in human nature to let it go."

"But," said Kitty wildly, "he _must_ let it go. You must make him. Do
you mean to say you're going to sit and look on calmly while Miss
Harden loses three thousand pounds?"

"I'm not looking on calmly. On the contrary, I've lost my head."

"What's the good of losing your head, if Miss Harden loses her money?
What do you propose to do _besides_ losing your head? Lose time I
suppose? As if you hadn't lost enough already."

"I wrote to Mr. Jewdwine as soon as I heard of Sir Frederick Harden's
death. Still, you're right, I did lose time; and time was everything.
You can't reproach me more than I reproach myself."

"My dear man, I'm not reproaching you. I only want to know what you're
going to _do_?"

"Do? Is there anything left for me to do?"

"Not much, that I can see."

"If I'd only spoken straight out in the beginning--"

"Do you mean to her?"

"To her." He whispered the pronoun so softly that it sounded like a
sigh.

"Why didn't you?"

"Why didn't I? I can see it was the one honest thing to do. But I
thought I'd no business to know about her father's affairs if she
didn't; and certainly no business to talk about them."

"No. I don't see how you could have done it."

"All t