This was a blunt and unfortunate speech, for Bella's brown eyes sparkled as she asked, hotly, 'How dare you think, much less ask, if I would encourage anyone?' 'I don't know--pardon me; I scarcely know what I think or what I say.' 'So it seems.' Both were standing now, but apart. Oh, how Jerry longed to take her in his arms and pour his farewell kisses on her lips and hair and eyes; but this was not to be. 'How hard you are with me!' said he, after a pause. 'Have you deserved that I should be otherwise?' 'My mother has said----' 'Oh, I am infinitely obliged to Lady Julia for her opinion of me, of course,' said Bella, cresting up her beautiful head; 'but what has she said of me?' 'That you are the greatest flirt in Hampshire, and that, young as you are, you have flirted with every man that came near you.' 'I think you must know more of me than she does, and may know how much of all this is true; but she told me the same of you, and even more, and that she could not get you off to your regiment soon enough.' 'Why?' asked Jerry, with surprise. 'Because of a _tendresse_ for her own maid; and that you have been making love to every woman and girl since. But all this gossip does not concern me, so let the conversation end. You came to bid me good-bye?' 'Yes,' said Jerry, in a hard tone. 'Had you not better bid papa good-bye too? I think I heard him come in.' She put her hand upon the bell. 'Stay one moment--stay!' he said, imploringly. She looked down and played nervously with the silver bangles on her wrists, some of them the gift of Jerry in happier moments. 'Consider once again,' said he, brokenly; 'think of what my life will be apart from you. Will you dream of me when I am gone?' 'Why should I dream--and dreams come unbidden?' 'Think of me, then?' 'A waste of time surely. I shall have much to think of--papa and my poor people.' 'Why do you speak like this to me?' he said, with a flash of indignation. 'Is it because each day sees me a poorer and your father a richer man? or has another touched your heart?' An angry smile curled her lip at this question. She recollected the scene in the conservatory, and remembered it has been said that 'a woman never yields an inch, however innocently and generously, to a man that he does not suspect her, sooner or later, of having given way in a similar manner to some man who has come _earlier_.' 'I listen to all this too late. I know your motive. I thank you for the honour you condescend to do me, but let the matter end,' said Bella, while a shuddering sigh escaped her pale lips, for her respiration came in little proud gasps and her heart throbbed painfully--painfully for the part that pride inspired, and a doubt of the purity of Jerry's love, though at the time loving him dearly herself. It was every way a curious situation, and at last Jerry took up his hat and gloves. 'We have been somewhat apart of late,' said he; 'yet I do not wish--that--that we should part coldly.'