He stopped his restless walk to stand before her again. She was silent a moment with her glance fixed on the rug. Then she raised her eyes to his, and her manner became suddenly grave. "Yes, Jack," she said, "we have always been friends; but has any man, simply because he is a friend, a right to ask a girl a question like that?" "You mean--" "I mean no more than I say. There are other men with whom I've been friends all my life. Is there any one of them that you'd think had a right to come here to-night and question me about my engagement?" "I'd break his head if he did!" Jack retorted savagely. "Then why shouldn't he--whoever he might be--break yours?" He flung himself into his chair again, his sunny face clouded, and his brows drawn down. He met her glance with a look which seemed to be trying to fathom the purpose of her mood. "Why, hang it," he said; "with me it's different. You know I've always been more than a common friend." "You have been a good friend," she answered with resolute self-composure; "but only a friend after all." "Then you mean that I cannot be more than a friend?" She dropped her eyes, a faint flush stealing up into her pale cheeks. "You do not wish to be; and therefore you have no right--" He sprang up impulsively and seized both her hands in his. "Good God, Alice," he exclaimed, "you drive me wild! You know that if I were not so cursedly poor--" She released herself gently, and with perfect calmness. "I know," she responded, "that you have weighed me in the balance against the trouble of earning a living, and you haven't found me worth the price. In the face of a fact like that what is the use of words?" He thrust his empty hands into his pockets, and glowered down on her. "You know I love you, Alice. You know I've been in love with you ever since I began to walk; and you--you--" She rose and faced him proudly. "Well, say it!" she cried. "Say that I was foolish enough to love you! That I knew no better than to believe in you, and that I half broke my heart when you forced me to see that you weren't what I thought. Say it, if you like. You can't make me more ashamed of it than I am already!" "Ashamed--Alice?" "Yes, ashamed! It humiliates me that I should set my heart on a man that cared so little for me that he set me below his polo-ponies, his bachelor ease, his miserable little self-indulgences! Oh, Jack," she went on, her manner suddenly changing to one of appeal, and the tears starting into her eyes, "why can't you be a man?" She put her hand on his arm, and he covered it affectionately with one of his while she hurried on. "Do break away from the life you are living, and do something worthy of you. You are good to everybody else; there's nothing you won't do for others; do this for yourself. Do it for me. You are throwing yourself away, and I have to hear them talk of your debts, and your racing and gambling, and how reckless you are! It almost kills me!"