tch you are making," says he, regarding her
curiously. "Did you never ask yourself whether I was well off, or
otherwise?"

"Never!" with a gay laugh. "If I were going to marry you next week or
so, it might occur to me to ask the question; but everything is so far
away, what does it signify? If you had the mines of Golconda, I should
not like you a bit better than I do."

"My own darling! Oh, Molly, how you differ from most girls one meets.
Now, in London, once they find out I am only the third son, they throw
me over without warning, and generally manage to forget the extra dance
they had promised, while their mothers look upon me, and such as me, as
a pestilence. And you, sweetheart, you never once asked me how much a
year I had!"

"You have your pay, I suppose?" says Molly, doubtfully. "Is that much?"

"Very handsome," replies he, laughing; "a lieutenant's pay generally
is. But I have something besides that; about as much as most fellows
would spend on their stabling. I have precisely five hundred and fifty
pounds a year, neither more nor less, and I owe two hundred pounds.
Does not that sound tempting? The two hundred pounds I owe don't count,
because the governor will pay up that; he always does in the long run;
and I haven't asked him for anything out of the way now for fully eight
months." He says this with a full consciousness of his own virtue.

"I call five hundred and fifty pounds a year a great deal," says Molly,
with a faint ring of disappointment in her tone. "I fancied you
downright poor from what you said. Why, you might marry to-morrow
morning on that."

"So I might," agrees he, eagerly; "and so I will. That is, not
to-morrow, exactly, but as soon as ever I can."

"Perhaps you will," says Molly, slowly; "but, if so, it will not be me
you will marry. Bear that in mind. No, we won't argue the matter: as
far as I am concerned it doesn't admit of argument." Then recurring to
the former topic: "Why, John has only seven hundred pounds, and he has
all the children and Letitia and me to provide for, and he keeps
Lovat--that is the eldest boy--at a very good school as well. How
_could_ you call yourself poor, with five hundred pounds a year?"

"It ought to be six hundred and fifty pounds; but I thought it a pity
to burden myself with superfluous wealth in my palmy days, so I got rid
of it," says he, laughing.

"Gambling?"

"Well, yes, I suppose so."

"Cards?"

"No, horses. It was in India,--stupid