"You see, Miss Cheffington, of course I'm aware there's a great difference in years. But that's not the biggest difference in reality. I don't believe myself that I'm so very much older in some ways than I was at five-and-twenty. I was always a steady kind of a chap, and I never had much to say for myself--never was what you might call lively, you know." May sat spell-bound; looking at him fixedly, and with that dawn of clear-sightedness rapidly illumining many things, to her unspeakable consternation. "No; it isn't the years that make the biggest difference. I'm below you in education, of course, Miss Cheffington, and in a deal besides, no doubt. But I can be trusted to mean all I say--though I'm not able to say all I mean, by a long chalk." As he said this he raised his eyes for the first time, and looked at her. She was still regarding him with the same fascinated, almost helpless, gaze. But when she met his clear, honest, grey eyes, with a wistful expression in them which was pathetically contrasted with the massive strength of his head and face, she was suddenly inspired to say-- "Please, Mr. Bragg, will you hear me? I want to tell you something before you--before you say any more. I think you are my friend, and if you don't mind, I should like to tell you a secret. May I?" He nodded, keeping his eyes on her now steadily. "Well, I--I hope you will forgive me for troubling you with my confidence. I _know_ you will respect it. If I had not such a high esteem and regard for you I--I _could_ not say it." She stopped an instant, there was a choking feeling in her throat. She paused, mastered it, and went on. "I have promised to marry some one whom I love very much, and no one knows about it but Granny." When she had spoken, she hid her hot face in her hands, and cried silently. There was absolute stillness in the room for some minutes. At length she looked up and saw Mr. Bragg still sitting as before, with loosely clasped hands and downcast eyes. May rose to her feet, and said timidly, "I hope you are not angry with me for--for telling you?" Mr. Bragg stood up also, and placing one broad, powerful hand on her head, as a father might have done, looked down gravely at her upturned face. "Angry! Lord bless you, my child, what must I be made of to be angry with _you_?" "Oh, thank you, Mr. Bragg! And will you promise--but I know you will--not to betray me?" He did not notice this question. His mind was working uneasily. He thrust his hands into his pockets, and walked to the other side of the room and back, before saying-- "This person that you've promised to marry, is he one that your people here"--he jerked his head over his shoulder in the direction in which Mrs. Dormer-Smith had disappeared--"would approve of?" "Oh, yes!" answered May. Then she added, not quite so confidently, "I think so. At any rate, I am very proud to be loved by him." "And Mrs. Dobbs--"