"It is rather a belated request, Mr. Jelnik. Besides, you haven't told me why you want to marry me," said I, sedately. "You are well aware that I love you, Sophy. And I think you care for me in return. Why did you turn that coin when it meant 'Go,' and bid me, instead, 'Stay'? Was it because you cared, Sophy?" "Yes, Mr. Jelnik: it was because I cared. I cared enough to tell a--a lie. And--I shall say yes to your other question, Mr. Jelnik." But he shook his head. "Ah, no, my dear! You'd be called upon to make too many sacrifices. I couldn't bear that!" "A man needn't be worried about the sacrifices a woman makes for him when she knows he loves her." "Not in normal circumstances; not when he can give as much as he takes." "Hynds House," I said, "is costing me a steep and bitter price, Mr. Jelnik!" "Do I not also pay?" he asked fiercely. "Oh, you have your pride!" said I, wearily; "Hynds pride!" "A poor enough possession, Sophy, but all that remains to me," he said gently. "Is it a light thing for Nicholas Jelnik to say to the woman he loves, 'I cannot marry you: I am a beggar'? Is it such a small sacrifice to give you up, Sophy?" "It would appear so." "You crucify me!" he said, in a choking voice. "Good God, don't you understand that I love you?" "I don't understand anything, except that you are going away from me. And I have waited for you all my life," I said. "And I for you! and I for you!" he said passionately. "Don't make it too hard for me, Sophy!" "If you go away from me," I gasped, "I think I shall die. Nicholas--I can't bear it! It was easier for me when I thought you loved somebody else. But now that I know you love _me_" and I paused. He took a step forward, but stopped. His arms fell to his sides. "Not as a beggar!" he said. "Not as a beggar! Never that, for Nicholas Jelnik! I love you too much for that, Sophy. I love you not only for yourself, but for my own best self, too, my dearest." For a moment he stood there, regarding me fixedly. It was a long look, of suffering, of love, of pride, of unyielding resolve. Then he lifted my hand to his lips, bowed, and left me. I sat staring over the garden. I wondered if, somewhere on the other side of things, Great-Aunt Sophronisba wasn't snickering. CHAPTER XX HARBOR "My faith, but I'm glad you're entirely well again, Sophy!" wrote The Author, in his small, fine, hypercritical script. "You make the world a pleasanter place by being alive in it. People like you should inculcate in themselves the fixed and unalterable habit of being alive. They should firmly refuse to be anything else. I call this to your attention, in the hope that you will see your bounden duty and do it. "When I thought you were going to quit, I ran away. That was a calamity I could not stand by and witness, without disaster. However, Jelnik stayed!