Doris went to the telegraph office, to wire to his mother to say that he was returning home ill, and afterwards while she was packing up for him the reply telegram arrived. It was short, but to the point: "Shall be glad to see you. Come immediately." In the afternoon, Doris and Bernard went to King’s Cross in a cab, and there the girl saw him off in an express for Doncaster. He urged her to accompany him, but this she declined to do. "Well, of course, if you won’t marry me at once, dear," he said, "it would be a pity for you to leave your good, paying business." Doris had not told him that she was relinquishing the work, and he departed in the belief that she still retained her remunerative employment. But the girl returned slowly to Mrs. Austin’s, to sell the tools of her trade, which she no longer required, and thus complete the renunciation of her business. And if the thought of that strong man, the champion of truth and honour, Norman Sinclair, was a help and support to her in this difficult crisis of her life, who can wonder at it? Bernard was ill and far away, and the artist had powerfully influenced her. *CHAPTER XVII.* *IN POVERTY.* Give me neither poverty nor riches. _The Prayer of Agar_. Doris realised ten pounds by the sale of her stock-in-trade, the materials and the pictures which had not been paid for previously, and then, having altogether one hundred pounds in hand, she imagined herself fairly well off, and with means sufficient to maintain herself in comfort until she could find some other employment. And now she bought newspapers and frequented public reading-rooms, in order to search through the columns of advertisements in papers and ladies’ journals for some post which she could hope to obtain. Her idea of paying back even a small portion of her father’s debt to Bernard being now exploded, she hoped to obtain a comfortable home and small salary as lady’s companion, or governess, or secretary; and many were the applications for such places that she made personally, or by letter, but always in vain. Having no better reference to give than poor Mrs. Austin, and having had no experience of the work, she was so unfortunate as to meet with refusals everywhere. She was too pretty for some mistresses to tolerate the idea of having her in their homes, and she was too reticent about her parents and home to suit others.