Mrs. Dobbs preserved her outward composure; but something seemed to whirl and spin in her brain; and, although she kept her eyes fixed on Mr. Bragg, she saw neither him nor anything else in the room for several seconds. "I was asked through Mrs. Griffin. You may have heard speak of her?" Mrs. Dobbs made an affirmative movement of the head. She could not have articulated a word at that moment to save her life. "Mrs. Griffin is a well-meaning lady. But she's a lady who now and then gets out of her depth, along of not--what you might call minding her own business. But she always means to be kind. And the best of us make mistakes." "Ah, that we do!" assented Mrs. Dobbs huskily. "Well, Mrs. Griffin is always telling me that my money--'a princely fortune' she calls it: but it's a good deal more than _that_, by what I can hear about princes--lays me under an obligation to marry again." At the words "princely fortune" Mrs. Dobbs winced, and a deep red flush came into her face; but she answered quietly, "Wealth has its responsibilities, of course, Mr. Bragg." "Yes, it has; and its troubles. But when all's said and done, it's pleasanter to be rich than poor. I've tried both." "No doubt. Only--one may pay too dear even for being rich." "Well, I should be sorry for any lady I married to consider that she paid too dear for being rich." "Oh, I meant no offence, Mr. Bragg." "There's nothing you may not pay too dear for, I suppose; except a quiet conscience. You may pay too dear for a wife. And there's two sides to every"--he was about to say "bargain," but he substituted the word "arrangement." Mrs. Dobbs had taken up her knitting, and was twisting and pulling it with her fingers in a restless, nervous way. When Mr. Bragg made a pause, and looked at her, she said, "Of course, that's quite true." He went on, "I make bold to hope, Mrs. Dobbs, that you'll give me credit in what I'm going to say, for having some serious reason, and not talking idly, out of pride and vanity; in short, for not being what you might call a fool." "Yes, I will, Mr. Bragg." "Thank ye. On that understanding I may say, between ourselves, that Mrs. Griffin has mentioned to me several quarters where I shouldn't meet with a refusal in case I went to look for a wife. I couldn't have supposed it myself--at least, not to the extent it really does run to. But the fact has been brought to my knowledge, so that there's no possibility of making any mistake about it. More than one young lady--some of 'em titled, too," said Mr. Bragg, with an odd glimmer of complacency flitting for a moment like a will-o'-the-wisp above the solid _terra firma_ of his native good sense. "More than one, and more than two, have been what you might call trotted out for me." Mrs. Dobbs's fingers twitched and pulled at the wool on her knitting-needles, and the muscles round her mouth seemed to tighten. But she said not a word.