'Oh, my dear fellow, not at all; we suit each other perfectly. But I knew we should; you remember my telling you so? I should think you would have noticed it this week past yourself.' 'What I have noticed, my poor Jeff, has caused me more than one twinge of conscience. You must try and forgive me. The fact is, the Countess Almara and I----' The poet interrupted me with an arch laugh. 'Twinge of conscience, did you say? Twinge of jealousy you mean. My dear old Campbell, if I have anything to forgive, I forgive it with all my heart. But my object in coming here so early was to ask you to forgive me.' 'Ah, I fancy I understand you, and I admit having thought you rather reprehensible on that score. Considering that your father made that provisional arrangement regarding your income in case you thwarted his wishes----' 'Yes, but that was only in case I----' 'In case you married anyone but the lady he had selected for you. Exactly. And you decided that you preferred the Countess to the income.' 'Really you are mistaken, Campbell. I have no idea of risking my income. I know the value of money.' 'All I was going to say was that you have not been acting quite ingenuously towards the Count and Countess Semaroff, not to speak of their daughter. They look upon you as a young gentleman able to dispose of ten thousand pounds a year. Now, if you had proposed to them for her hand without letting them know----' 'Propose to them for it? But, my dear Campbell, that was all settled from the beginning.' 'Do you mean to say they have admitted you as a suitor?' 'Why, what else could I mean?' 'And you omitted to tell them that in case you married her, you would have but three hundred pounds income?' 'Indeed, I told them nothing of the sort. Why should I?' 'Because an honest man in your place would have told them!' I replied coldly. 'You are sailing under false colours. You are giving yourself out to be a millionaire when you have only the salary of a clerk.' 'But isn't a clerk with ten thousand a year a pretty decent millionaire?' 'But you will have ten thousand a year only as long as you are unmarried.' 'That is so far the case that, after I'm married, I shall have twenty thousand a year--my wife's income added to my own.' 'Well, Montgomery, I don't care to beat about the bush with you. If you can reconcile your conduct with your own code of honesty it's no concern of mine. But as regards the Countess Almara--I am going to marry her myself.' 'You? Oh, you are joking.' 'I have loved her from the first; she loves me----' 'Oh! I say! ha, ha, ha! Has she told you so?' 'We have not openly declared ourselves in so many words--you are welcome to whatever consolation that may afford you--but there are other means of coming to an understanding than by words.' 'Well, that is true, at any rate: it is for that I came to ask your pardon, Campbell. But really was it not in great measure your own fault?'