"I have recently been ill, as I told you," I said in pleading tones, "and doubts, whatever their nature, are trying to me. Tell me only this--you are going?" She breathed deeply for several seconds and then, with her head slightly on one side, looked at me. "Do you really want me to?" she asked, gently. CHAPTER VII. GETTING READY FOR MY JOURNEY. She could not know the pain she gave me by her evasions, that was the excuse I found for her. The dread that after all she intended to disappoint me pressed like a heavy weight upon my brain. She must have seen something in my face that alarmed her, for she asked if I would like a glass of water--or wine. When I replied in the negative she came at once to the preliminaries that were in her mind. "I am going, of course," she said. "That is, if you think it worth while to grant all the demands I find necessary. I shall be glad when this disagreeable part of our bargain is ended, and I believe you will be equally, if not more so." "What is it now?" I inquired, rather querulously. "What do you want? Come to the point, I beg, without further delay." She turned to a mirror, and with a brush that lay on the bureau pushed back the hair that was half tumbling over her face--hair that was light and yet not blonde; hair that matched well with her blue-gray eyes and her regular features. "It is not so easy as you may think to detail these things," she said, when her face was again turned toward me. "I have to depend on myself for my living, but I hate to assume the guise of a beggar. Still, as I told you in the first place, my purse is practically empty. There are many articles needed if I am to go with you, that I would not otherwise want at this season of the year. They will cost money. I--" "All that was settled in my letter to-day," I interrupted. "Have you not received it?" "Yes, I received the letter, and I want to thank you for its kindness of tone. As I understand it, you offer to advance me what I need to prepare for the journey. This, I presume, is to be deducted from my salary, which under ordinary circumstances, would be quite acceptable. But, as I told you, I have another to support, and I have to rely upon my weekly stipend for that purpose." For a moment I doubted the girl. Was she after all an adventuress who meant to get what she could in advance, and disappear when the time of departure came? No man likes to be made the victim of a schemer. I do not care any more for a few dollars than the average of my fellows, but the thought of having them cheated out of me is not pleasant to contemplate. I imagined my chagrin if I should go sailing off to the Caribbean with the reflection that I had been the victim of a smooth-tongued woman--I, who had been through the same mill, and ought to have learned something.