She stopped, and looked searchingly at the face of her companion. "When you--what?" he asked. "What is the alternative, Paulina?" "I think you ought to know as well as I," she answered. "I must either pay those debts or fly from this place, and from this country, disgraced. I appeal to you in this bitter hour of need. Can you not help me--you, who have professed to love me?" "Surely, Paulina, you cannot doubt my love," replied Sir Reginald; "unhappily, there is no magical process by which the truest and purest love can transform itself into money. I have not a twenty-pound note in the world." "Indeed; and the four hundred and fifty pounds you won from Lord Caversham just before Christmas--is that money gone?" "Every shilling of it," answered Reginald, coolly. He had notes to the amount of nearly two hundred pounds in his desk; but he was the last man in Christendom to sacrifice money which he himself required, and his luxurious habits kept him always deeply in debt. "You must have disposed of it very speedily. Surely, it is not all gone, Reginald. I think a hundred would satisfy my creditors, for a time at least." "I tell you it is gone, Paulina. I gave you a considerable sum at the time I won the money--you should remember." "Yes, I remember perfectly. You gave me fifty pounds--fifty pounds for the support of the house which enabled you to entrap your dupes, while I was the bait to lure them to their ruin. Oh, you have been very generous, very noble; and now that your dupes are tired of being cheated--now that your cat's paw has become useless to you--I am to leave the country, because you will not sacrifice one selfish desire to save me from disgrace." "This is absurd, Paulina," exclaimed the baronet, impatiently; "you talk the usual nonsense women indulge in when they can't have everything their own way. It is not in my power to help you to pay your creditors, and you had much better slip quietly away while you are free to do so, and before they contrive to get you into prison. You know what Sheridan said about frittering away his money in paying his debts. There's no knowing where to leave off if you once begin that sort of thing." "You would have me steal away in secret, like what you English call a swindler!"