“Still, listen to me, my dearest! I could not let that stand between us. The debt would have to be paid some day, and when I _knew_ who my husband was to be, there was only one way of meeting it. I should have asked Ada,” her voice sank, “to give me the money. She will be rich, very rich; she could easily give me that. She is good-hearted, I know, though we have never been able to love each other. Before her marriage I would have asked her to give it me, and she would not have refused; it would have been her first act when the property became hers.” He laid his hand upon her bowed head, and stroked it tenderly; then he raised her to sit by him again. “I am so glad you have told me that,” he said, smiling very kindly. “Let it be the end of your trouble. Ada will still give you the money when she is of age.” She kept a long silence before her next words, then looked up at him with wide eyes. “Are we to be parted so long?” “But our marriage as yet was in any case impossible. It was bad enough to ask you to share poverty with me; you could not support my sister and her children.” “Would not your own income have been sufficient for them? We should have had my money.” “Even if it were enough--barely enough--at present, it could not possibly be so as the boys grow up. It is very hard to think of her living in such a poor and joyless way in those hateful surroundings. I dread to imagine her state now. She will have grown used to a mean, sordid life; her refinement will all be gone; the poisonous air of working London will have infected her. I shall feel shame that she is my sister.” “That will soon be altered,” Isabel said comfortingly. “You will take her into new scenes. Your society will help her. Who would not grow gentle and refined in your presence? Oh, my love, my love!” Passionate distress overcame her; she clung to him and wept silently. Kingcote was pale-and woe-stricken; the future loomed hideous before him; he found it hard to feign to himself the gleaming of one far-off star of hope. “Bernard!” She raised her head, and looked into his eyes with a passion-glow of purpose. “If I can obtain that money at once--borrow it, perhaps, from some one who will take my mere word to be repaid when Ada is of age--yes, yes, I could--will you marry me, and let us trust to the future? You are clever--you know so much--you will find some position, sooner or later. Who knows? Your sister may marry again. Will you take my hand, and let us face everything together?”