deal
of little things here. It is not as if we were--on the other side."

He laughed with a sort of fierce ridicule that offended the girl. "So--I
might be supposed to be coming after you," he said.

She flung the matches to him across the counter. "There may be more
difference here than there was _there_; but a gentleman, if he is a
gentleman; will be civil wherever he is."

"You are quite right," said Dick, recovering himself, "and I spoke like
a fool. For all that you say, misery is the end of such a life; and if I
could help it I should not like her to come to want."

"Oh!" said Lizzie, with exasperation, stamping her foot. "Want yourself!
You are more like to come to it than she is. I could show you in a
moment--I could just let you see----" Here she paused, and faltered, and
grew red, meeting his eyes. He did not ask any further questions. He had
grown pale as she grew red. Their looks exchanged a rapid communication,
in which neither Lizzie's reluctance to speak nor his hesitation in
asking was of any avail. He put down the sixpence which he had in his
hand upon the counter, and went out into the night in a dumb confusion
of mind, as if he had received a blow.

Here, breathing the same air, seeing the same sights, within reach! He
went a little further on in the darkness, not knowing where, nor caring,
in the bewilderment of the shock which had come to him unawares, and
suddenly in the dark was aware of a range of lighted windows which
seemed to hang high in the air--the windows of the Elms appearing over
the high garden wall. He went along towards the house mechanically, and
only stopped when his shoulder rubbed against the bricks, near the spot
where he had seen Lizzie come out, as he walked past. The lights moved
about from window to window; the house seemed full of movement and life;
and within the wall there was a sound of conversation and laughter. Did
he recognise the voices, or any one among them? He did not say so even
to himself, but turned round and hurried back, stumbling through the
darkness which hid and blinded him. In the village he met a woman with
a lantern, who he did not doubt was Lizzie's grandmother, the village
authority; no doubt a gossip, quite disposed to search into other people's
mysteries, quite unaware of the secret story which had connected itself
with his own. She passed him in a little mist of light in the midst of
the dark, raising her head instinctively as he passed with a