He smiled compassionately, as he would have smiled at the ravings of a child, as he raised her from her lowly position and placed her in a chair. “Do you know what I am going to do, little woman?” he said cheerfully. “I am going to leave you all alone to think this matter over until to-morrow. By that time you will have been able to compare the opinions of two people who do not care a jot about you, with those of mine who love you so dearly. Think well over what they have said to you, and I have said to you, and you have said to me! Remember, that if you adhere to your present determination, you will make both yourself and me most unhappy, and do no one any good. As for myself, I venture to say that if I lose you my grief and disappointment will be so great, that, in all probability, I shall never do any good work again. But be a sensible girl--make up your mind to marry me, and give the lie to all this nonsense, and I’ll write a book that will astonish the world! Come, Hally, is it to be ruin or success for me?--Ruin to spend my life without the only woman I have ever cared for, or success to win my wife and a companion who will help me in my work and make my happiness complete?” He kissed her tear-stained face several times, and left her with a bright smile. “This time to-morrow, remember, and I shall come with the licence in my pocket.” CHAPTER XVII. Doctor Phillips did not meet Margaret and her husband until luncheon time and then they were full of an encounter which they had had during their morning walk. “Only fancy, Doctor!” exclaimed Margaret, with more animation than she had displayed of late, “Arthur and I have been shopping in Regent Street, and whom do you think we met?” “I give it up, my dear,” replied the doctor, helping himself to cold beef. “I am not good at guessing riddles.” “Ralph and Elinor! They had just come from some exhibition of pictures in New Bond Street, and I never saw them so pleased with each other before. Ralph was looking actually ‘spooney’, and Elinor was positively radiant.” “_Souvent femme varie_,” quoted Doctor Phillips, shrugging his shoulders. “Oh! but, Doctor, it made Arthur and me so glad to see them. Elinor is very fond of Ralph, you know, although she has shewn it so little. And so I have no doubt is he of her, and there would never have been any unpleasantness between them, if it had not been for that horrid girl, Harriet Brandt.” “It is not like you, my dear Margaret, to condemn anyone without a hearing. Perhaps you have not heard the true case of Miss Harriet Brandt. Although I am glad that Ralph has disentangled himself from her, I still believe that he behaved very badly to both the young ladies, and whilst I am glad to hear that Miss Leyton smiles upon him again, I think it is more than he deserves!”