"Yes. If you reflect, as I have already reflected times without number during these past few weeks, Liane, you must recognise that your position as the daughter of an almost penniless adventurer, is by no means an enviable one. If anything happened to me you would be left without a friend, and without a penny. Such thoughts are, I admit, not exactly pleasant ones, nevertheless the truth must be faced, at this, the most important crisis of your life. Again, I have nothing to give you, and can hope for nothing. In the days bygone I managed to pick up sufficient to provide us with the comforts and luxuries of life, but now, alas! luck and friends have alike deserted me, and I am left ruined. I--" "But you are not friendless, dear old dad," Liane cried suddenly, the light of affection glowing in her beautiful eyes as, with a sudden movement, she sprang across to him, and kneeling beside his chair as she often did, put both her soft, clinging arms about his neck. "I am your friend, as I have always been. I do not want to marry and leave you," and she burst into tears. His voice became choked by a sob he vainly strove to keep back. He felt his resolution giving way, and bit his lip. "If--if you would remain my friend, Liane, you will marry," he managed to ejaculate at last, although the words seemed to stifle him, and he hated himself for having uttered them. "No, dad--I will never allow you to live alone." "But you must, dearest," he answered with emphasis, fondly pushing back her dark hair from her brow. "Think what a chance you now have of securing position, wealth and everything which contributes to life's happiness. Zertho loves you." "I know," she answered, with a touch of ineffable sadness in her voice and raising her tear-stained face to his. "But I am happy as I am, with you." "True. Yet in a few months the money we have will become exhausted, and whence we shall obtain more I know not," he said with a look of despair. "You have a chance to become a princess--the wife of a man even wealthier than his sovereign--therefore you should seriously reflect, Liane, ere you refuse." "How did you know that Zertho loves me?" she suddenly inquired, turning her frank face upward to his. "Because he has told me," he answered, in a voice low almost as a whisper. "He asked my permission to speak to you and offer you marriage." As he looked at her the thought flashed across his mind that he, her father, who loved her so dearly, was deceiving her. What would she say if she knew the truth? "Yes," she exclaimed with a sigh, "he says that he loves me, and has asked me to become his wife. But I have refused." "Why?" "Because I do not, I cannot love him, dad. Surely you would never wish me to marry a man for whom I have no affection, and in whom I have no trust." Her father held his breath and evaded her gaze. Her argument was unassailable. The words stabbed his tortured conscience.