arn more,
it will be because I think everybody ought to earn his living or hers.
You earned yours. I despise people who just batten on the earnings of
others, and never do a hand's turn for themselves."

"Batten!" he murmured ironically, with a troubled smile. "You look as
if you had been battening, don't you? Debbie, I'm a business man, and I
know you can't get behindhand in money matters and pull up again just
when you want to; you can't get straight merely by anticipating income,
when there's nothing extra coming in. Tell me, if you don't mind, how
you managed?" She flushed, and her eyes dropped; then she faced him
honestly.

"I will tell you," she declared. "I've wanted to confess it, though I'm
horribly ashamed to--and I'm afraid you'll think I did not value it. I
did indeed--I hated to part with it; but I was so hard up, and I didn't
know which way to turn, or what else to do--"

"And never came to me!"

"Well, I did--in a way. I--I sold your pearls."

"That's right, Debbie. That's a load off my mind. It is the best thing
you could have done with them."

"No, indeed! I have regretted it ever since."

"How much did they give you?" "A tremendous lot--three hundred and
fifty guineas."

"The swindlers! They were worth two thousand."

"What!" She was thunderstruck. "You gave me a necklace worth two
thousand guineas?"

"I only wish you'd let me give you a score or two at the same price, on
condition that you sold them for three-fifty whenever you needed a
little cash."

She was quite upset by this remark, and what had given rise to it.
Impulsively--too impulsively, considering how weak he was--she kissed
his damp forehead, and rushed weeping from his sight.

In the hot evening, while the trained nurse had her tea at grateful
leisure in the housekeeper's room, Deb again took that nurse's place.
She sat by the pillow of the patient, leaning against it, holding his
hand in hers. Only the sound of the cruel north wind and his more cruel
breathing disturbed the stillness that enveloped them. She hoped he was
sleeping, until he spoke suddenly in a way that showed him only too
wide awake.

"Debbie," he said, "if I was quite sure I would not get well this time,
I should put that question to you again."

"What question, dear?" she queried softly.

"The question I asked you just before you left Redford."

"I don't remember--Oh!"

"Yes--that one. But if you consented, I might recover--it would be
enough to