"With certain ruin staring me in the face, and with claims coming upon me which I may not be able to meet, I must begin immediately to retrench. Our establishment is an expensive one, and I dare not carry it on a day longer than is necessary. Rachel and I will sleep in the house to-night for the last time. To-morrow I will pay off the servants, and we shall move into humbler quarters. So tumble down all our grand castles. Well, it has happened to better men, who, after years of toil, have to begin life over again. Rachel will not mind; we have faced poverty before to-day, and will face it again cheerfully." "It drives me wild to hear you speak like that!" exclaimed Mr. Moss. "You are looking only on the black side. If you had the money you have got rid of the last two or three weeks----" "Hush! Mr. Moss, hush!" said Aaron, interrupting him. "It is a consolation to me to know that the greater part of my legitimately earned fortune has been so well bestowed. I am glad I did not wait to make reparation for the great error of my life. Rachel has yet to hear my confession. If I obtain her forgiveness I can face the future bravely and cheerfully." Under the seal of confidence Aaron had made Mr. Moss and Dr. Spenlove acquainted with the particulars of the story of the two babes and of the deception he had practiced in his home in Gosport. Mr. Moss was not greatly astonished, for the hints lately dropped by his friend had prepared him for some disclosure of a strange nature. "Besides," he said inwardly to himself, "Ruth bears no likeness to either Mr. or Mrs. Cohen. How blind we have all been!" In his weak moments Mr. Moss was rather inclined to be wise after the event. Both he and Dr. Spenlove had pledged themselves to secrecy, but when they proceeded to justify Aaron for the act he stopped them, saying it was a matter between him and his conscience. Now on this disastrous morning, as they walked from the City, Mr. Moss asked Aaron whether he intended to tell his wife to-day. "Not to-day," Aaron answered. "I must bide my time. The news that we are poor will be as much as Rachel can bear." CHAPTER XL. "CAN YOU FORGIVE ME?" On the evening of the same day Aaron and Rachel were alone in their house in Prince's Gate. Rose had taken her leave of them, and she and her father were traveling to Portsmouth, Mr. Moss with a heavy heart; he was older than Aaron, and was not so courageous in the hour of adversity. "What makes you so melancholy, father?" said Rose. "When you reach my age, Rose," he replied, "I hope you will not discover that life is a dream." The remark seemed to him rather fine and philosophical, but had he been asked to explain its precise meaning he would have found it difficult. "I hope I shall, father," said Rose as she leaned back and thought of her lover; "a happy dream."